One of your European connections here. When I know the person covering me will also be away for part of the time I’m gone, I get another colleague to cover for those dates and put that in my OOO. Saying “Your e-mail will not be read” or similar is really off-putting. The youth worker at my church does this and I find it infuriating. Of course it won’t. That’s the point of a holiday. When I get an answer from someone who reads his e-mails on vacation I’m pleasantly surprised.
My mom works part time at a library in archives, where her personal work email is also the general archives email (ie LibraryNameArchives @ email . com). She has an out of office response that replies with her work hours (since she’s the only employee in the archives) so people know when she’s in the library and can respond or when they can come in and visit her. The only frustrating thing is that her email either isn’t capable of, or she doesn’t know how to, turn off the OOO email when she’s actually in the office, or doesn’t trust that she’ll remember to turn it back on. She’ll send me an email about something, I’ll respond, I’ll get an OOO response, she’ll respond, I’ll reply, I get an OOO reply, etc etc.
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You can’t do that when students are emailing (well, you can, but you shouldn’t). Our office requirement is “within 48 hours during regular business hours.”
Hi, I’ll be out of the office until [MM/DD]. I will probably see your message because I don’t know how to relax. I will likely respond if I feel that I need to help in any way.
Thank you for your email. I’m away from my desk until [return date] trying to corral my kids between family visits and holiday sugar highs.
Out of Office Out of Office Friday, Nov 8th – Friday, Nov 9thI’m Out Til Monday the 12th
Same, I think it’s patronizing to talk people through their options as if they can’t make a decent choice without having their hand held every step of the way. There are plenty of people who can’t, of course, but I don’t think a long, verbose message is necessarily going to help.
If you want to add a humorous spin to your vacation responder email, here’s a great idea:
In my office, most of the phone lines just didn’t even have voicemail, because we already got enough abuse in regular phone calls (university parking office). When we switched to VOIP, that went away, but at least now they get *badly* transcribed into our email boxes…
A) Trying not to roll my eyes at this year’s new batch of corny holiday movies (which all seem to follow the same plot)
I’ll be back at my desk on [date] and will respond to your message immediately. In case you need urgent assistance, please forward an email to [contact name] at [contact email] so that Santa’s little helpers at our shop may look into it.
303-735-6245Voicemail system number: 5-6245 (5-MAIL) on-campus or 303-735-6245 off-campus. At the Main menu, press “4” for Setup Options, then press “1” for Greetings. Voicemail plays your current greeting. You can press # to skip hearing it. Follow the prompts to select the greeting that you want to change, then to make changes.
We are here to help, so you can focus on your time off! The less time you spend on the operational bits and pieces, the more time you will have to do some awesome reading.
Many in the MIT community will be taking vacation around the holidays and new year. If you’re in that group, you’ll want to set up automatic replies for your email and MITvoip phone. You can do this at work or at home. Read on for basic information and tips about auto-replies. Step-by-step instructions are available through the links provided.
Such emails are crucial, especially when you have long-lasting relationships with customers that need a prompt response. It would be very unprofessional to leave without explaining why you aren’t answering. It’s like if you are having a conversation with someone, you decide to just take off without saying goodbye, while they went to the bathroom. Rude!
I used to work at a place that required me to update my voicemail EVERY SINGLE DAY with my schedule for the day as in Hi, today is xyz and I will me in a meeting from 11-12 and at lunch from 12-1 and be in the office all other times.
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