Mine says something along the lines of “I’m currently away from my desk, and will be back online on Monday, 7 July…” and (if it’s a longer period and not just the next working day) perhaps also something like “If your enquiry is urgent, please resend to…” so someone else can deal with it.
Giving the option to contact an email address containing “interruptyourvacation” provides two things — 1) A dose of humor, and 2) discouragement from actually doing what the name suggests. Plus, he prefaces it with a request for empathy, by explaining that he promised quality time to his family.
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The head of llama engagement called my boss and reamed her out for my “poor behaviour” and then called me and reamed me out, too. She said it didn’t matter if project X was the biggest thing our company did all year – her requests took precedence.
You can then come up with a subject and write your text, explaining that you are out of office or unavailable.
I do feel like the person who wrote it may have some issues in their organization with, oh let’s call it fire fighting. People who don’t necessarily think through the process of who would be most effective at dealing with the problem at hand. This reads like the message of someone who is used to getting everything dumped in their email and this OOO is an attempt to manage expectations and distribute issues to the people most able to quickly and effectively deal with a range of problems
That’s the way ours is set up, so anyone who was emailing that guy at the time would have seen it.
Wow, it’s a bloody snooze fest over here! Just kidding, this option is the most appropriate for 95% of business out-of-office responses. It’s simple, no-nonsense, and tells people all they need to know.
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We’ve gone into lockdown in my state again, and one of my colleagues (events) has put the following as her out of office: Thank you for your message, I am working however there may be a delayed response as we manage our current events that have been affected by the recent XXXXXX Lockdown. I will respond to your request as soon as I am able. If the matter is time sensitive that can not wait please contact me on my mobile:
I am currently out of the office and will not have access to email. Please contact Elena Prince at [email protected] in my absence.
Smugness: it’s almost impossible to dodge in an OOO. London-based poet Rishi Dastidar, whose debut collection Ticker-Tape is billed as a “maximalist take on 21st Century living”, embraces this and lets his inner show-off have free rein by penning poems for his OOOs. “Yes, the tone of these poems is a little self-satisfied – but if you have to tell colleagues you are away, why not try and do it with a little style and pizzaz?” he points out, adding that it’s also one of the few mediums where you’re guaranteed an audience. Here’s how he explained he was away in France:
To remind us – as if we needed reminding, as we vainly strive for ‘inbox zero’ – of just what a time drain email has become, Kay Woodward, UK-based author of What Would She Do?, has wryly channelled one of her book’s real-life heroines, Emmeline Pankhurst (and Pankhurst’s movement’s motto) in her OOO. “Deeds, not emails. That’s what the Suffragettes need. And let’s face it, I’m probably in prison anyway, so couldn’t reply even if I wanted to.”
I want to know how everyone who works from home is wording their OOOs. Are you saying you’re out of the office? Away from your computer? Have closed the door to your home office?
There are some places where the culture absolutely embraces this type of…expression so it may be that it works just fine.
You probably received a number of these emails, and thus you should be familiar with the information out-of-office emails provide.
I worked with a guy years ago who would update his voicemail greeting literally every time he left the office.