Carnegie Mellon's U.S. campuses observe 11 official holidays. The university is closed on these days, and all non-essential personnel are not expected to report to work. Regular, full-time staff members may also take up to three floating holidays per calendar year.
It is important to understand that your auto-response message can go to anybody, even your top management people. Try to avoid any embarrassment by taking the time to proofread the message.
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A. Yes, the University’s official bookstore at Gateway will be open to provide textbook service to our students; this operation is managed by the University’s service provider, Barnes & Noble. You may want to check with the bookstore for its hours of operation by calling 419.530.2516.
I am out of the office from [date range]. If you need immediate assistance, please contact [name, title and contact information].
One common challenge faced by customers is auto reply email or text messages lack a specification about the estimated wait time to get answers for their queries.
My absolute favorite was the one that literally said “hodilay”. Typo included, capitalization, or any other words, not.
Unfortunately I didn’t save it, but I once received of office reply that included a synopsis of the “comedic novel” they were working on during their time off.
It’s possible I might quote from some responses to this in an upcoming column, so please note if you don’t want me to do that with yours!
Entrepreneurs and salespeople probably laugh at the prospect of being "out of office" — or, at the very least, unavailable to their clients 24/7. But the thing is, no one can be in the office 100% of the time. Even if your "office" is as portable as your laptop.
I’m part time. I don’t use an out of office message, but I do have my hours in my signature, and sometimes include that information in the body of email. Many of the people I correspond with frequently need things turned around quickly – postings for public meetings need to go out so many days ahead of said meeting, and similar. They need to know when I’m available to get the work done!
I work in a role where someone else has to cover when I’m out, so most things do get taken care of. I have never been in a position where I could delete all emails without ruffling some serious feathers, so while I appreciate the motivation, it’s a completely foreign option to me.
Hi, I’m out of the office. Thank you for getting in touch. We’ll get back to you within 8 business hours.
I think in an industry/company culture where that kind of responsiveness is expected/normal, that makes a lot of sense!
Voice mail is a strictly worse medium than almost any alternative. You don’t get the opportunity to converse and ask questions back and forth like you do with a phone call; you can’t extract information efficiently from the message like you can with an email (the old “ugh, I have to listen to this entire message over again just to check one thing he said at the end” scenario).
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought it was funny and not annoying! I’m with Alison that it’s probably just a little wordy, but there’s no problem with the humor.
You can include the range of dates that you will be away, but ultimately the sender wants to know when they can reach you again.
“Greetings. I’m away on holidays for a week and unable to respond to your call/message. I will return to the office on Jan. 20 and respond to you at the earliest. Hope to talk to you soon.”