[Your Name] said he/she will be back on [date]. I’m sure he/she will respond to your message as soon as he/she’s back. But if your concern is urgent, please send an email to [contact name] at [contact email]. He/She is not an autoresponder, I promise. He/She will take care of your needs. Good luck when you return next year. You will have plenty of emails to respond to! But for the meantime, be merry and have fun during the ho-ho-holidays! Recent Posts Sysgen – The End of An Era… Sysgen RPO – The Start of A Legacy Treat Your Recruitment Email Like A Marketing Strategy Sysgen names Rockstar Recruiter and Rookie of the Year at Annual Awards Celebrating 27 Years of Recruiting Excellence Sysgen Celebrates 27 Years of Tech Recruiting Excellence SmartCompany Plus Smart50 Awards Business Advice Retail Startups Webinars Five options for your Christmas out-of-office message you probably shouldn’t use
B037 Wasserstein Hall (WCC)1585 Massachusetts AvenueCambridge, MA02138Phone: 617-495-0722Hours: 8:00am - 5:30pm M-FHLS Services Hub Using OWA: Login to your mailbox by going to outlook.office365.com On the menu bar on the right-hand side, click on the gear icon and then click Automatic Replies (Note: The window can appear two different ways depending on the browser and if the screen is done loading) Select “Send automatic replies” Enter in your desired automatic reply message. You can also select “Send replies only during this time period” and set the start and end times if you’d like to set a specific time frame Optionally, if you would also like your automatic replies to be sent to people outside your organization, select “Send automatic reply messages to senders outside my organization” and then type the response you want to send while you are out of the office. Click OK at the top of the screen when you are finished Outlook for Windows: Open Outlook Click on the File tab in the upper left-hand corner, then select Automatic Replies (Out of Office) on the next screen. Select “Send automatic replies” Enter in your desired automatic reply message. You can also select “Only send during this time range:” and set your start and end times if you’d like to set a specific time frame. Optionally, if you’d like your automatic replies to be sent to people outside your organization, select the Outside My Organization (On) tab and then type the response you want to send while you are out of the office. Check “Send automatic replies for account ” Enter in your desired automatic reply message. Select “Only send replies during this time period:” and set the start and end times if you’d like to set a specific time frame. Optionally, if you’d like your automatic replies to be sent to people outside your organization, select “Also send replies to senders outside my organization” and then type the response you want to send while you are out of the office. About Contact or Visit HLS Accessibility Media Relations HLS Bicentennial Apply J.D. LL.M. S.J.D. Special Programs Academics Academic Calendar Course Catalog Curriculum Helios Alumni Giving to HLS HLS Amicus HLSA Harvard Law School Reunions Administration Dean’s Welcome Department Directory Human Resources Consumer Information (ABA Required Disclosures) Campus Student Services Student Organizations Sustainability HLS Calendar of Events Publications Faculty Publications Student Journals Harvard Law Today HLS Case Studies General Harvard University Careers at HLS Title IX Information Emergency Information Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube News RSS Feed Privacy and Copyright Trademark Notice Digital Accessibility News Series Topics Threat Research Podcast Search {{#articles}} {{title}} {{/articles}} View All News {{title}} {{/articles}} View All Series Application Security Artificial Intelligence CISO Cloud Security Data Protection Endpoint Fraud Protection Identity & Access Incident Response Mainframe Network Risk Management Intelligence & Analytics Security Services Threat Hunting Zero Trust Timeline: Local Government Cyberattacks Industries Banking & Finance Energy & Utility Government Healthcare Retail View All Topics {{title}} {{/articles}} View More From X-Force {{title}} {{/articles}} View All Episodes News Series Topics Industries Banking & Finance Energy & Utility Government Healthcare Retail Threat Research Podcast Home / Topics / Data Protection Taking Time Off? What Your Out of Office Message Tells Attackers

We’ve certainly come a long way since the honeymoon days of You’ve Got Mail, the 1998 Meg Ryan romcom in which each new electronic missive set Tom Hanks’ heart fluttering (and vice versa). These days, in tech circles, you’ll hear tales of folk who’ve set their email servers up to automatically delete unread emails after a week – before going on holiday for a full fortnight. Others have reduced the OOO to a single word in the subject line: “Nope.”
Different people may create different out of office messages based on what information they want to convey. It can be a simple notification of your absence and the date of your return. Your message can also point the person to some other person or resources to help them when you are away. Let us look at some of the most common examples and templates you can take help from when creating your auto-response out-of-office message.