Wishing you all of the Hope, Wonder, and Joy that the Season can bring!Warmest wishes of the Season from our family to yours.Let us cherish family and friends this Holiday Season.Wishing you a season filled with warm moments and cherished memories. Specify the duration of leave and name of the colleague who will handle your work responsibilities in your absence. Furnish contact details for any urgent requirement and mention your date of joining back work.
I once worked somewhere that required an all-office email if you were going to be late, if you had an appointment, etc. I hated that. No one needed to know I was going to the dentist, but it was policy so I did it.
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What we need in our work communication is not more professional politeness or less formal, chat-based messaging applications like Slack. We need honesty. The problem is that we’ve conditioned ourselves to see honesty as self-indulgent or disrespectful. I’d argue the opposite is true. Honesty, even if it’s a bit more inconvenient for all parties in the moment, pays dividends later. It builds trust. When my partner Anne Helen Petersen and I were interviewing people for our forthcoming book on remote work, a frequent lament from both middle managers and workers was that they didn’t feel like they knew how to succeed in their jobs; that they were guessing what their superiors and coworkers wanted and, even when they asked, they didn’t quite trust the responses they got back.
“I’m offline and have sporadic access to email until X date. For urgent matters contact Colleagues A and B. For true work related emergencies you can call me at Cell Number”
I definitely hate the overshares. And I have one coworker whose rigidly precise & formal language comes off as pretentious and condescending. She sets up an out of office every time she leaves slightly early, so I get them A LOT.
I think this makes a lot of sense for a 2-3 month absence, when there wouldn’t be much point in reading and responding to things when you get back. Questions will have been answered and issues resolved by different means.
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Dude, my brain is not friends with my ears. It’s not psychological, my brain’s just less reliable than Siri at transcribing your voicemail. No one wants me calling them back explaining that I don’t handle the otter scriptorium inks when really they wanted a chocolate teapot.
During this period I will have limited access to my email. For immediate assistance please contact me on my cell phone at (your cell phone number). Best Regards, [Your Name] Example 2: …
As for pet peeves, I hate when someone doesn’t turn off their out of office or it has out dated information. As in I’m out of the office until 1/5/1999. UPDATE YOUR MESSAGE or TURN IT OFF! :)
At my current workplace, I got an OOO about someone being on sabbatical and off driving a vintage VW bus. Loved that one. But also got one about someone bringing a tiny human into the world – that was a weird overshare.
Some people keep theirs quite corporate and formal, adopting a to-the-point notification, i.e.:
There’s a grim, apologetic vibe to these messages — I’m sorry I’m taking time for myself but I’ll try to check in on occasion! They’re a vivid reflection of a work culture that valorizes constant productivity and the near-total overlap of work and life. But they’re also do a terrible job of what they’re intended to do, e.g., set realistic expectations for both sender and recipient. A vague OOO message traps both parties in an uncomfortable liminal space where both productivity and rest go to die. The original sender is left unsure if they’ll be getting a timely response or a whether the email will go ignored for a time or forever. The original recipient has taken what is a rock solid excuse (time off) and cheapened it, offering a backdoor for email guilt to creep in.
It’s kind of a ridiculous OOO anyway since by the time I get it from you, I have already sent my email.
Literally just “Please note that (date) is a public holiday in (country). I will not be checking my inbox until (next working day).”
If you work with regular clients, then you may want to send holiday messages to clients to help maintain these important relationships. Reminding clients that you are there for them through these brief messages can go a long way to creating goodwill with these pivotal connections.