In Outlook Mail, you can set an auto-reply or "vacation message" on your account. This will automatically send a message back to anyone who emails you to let them know that you are on vacation, out of the office, or otherwise unable to respond.
You’ve been busy planning out your tasks, tying up loose ends, and working ahead to ensure you can disconnect, recharge, and relax over your holiday break.
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I’ll be on maternity leave from [DATE] until [DATE]. For general inquiries about [DEPARTMENT/ROLE], please email [CONTACT NAME]. If this isn’t time sensitive, feel free to resend this email in [MONTH] once I’m regularly checking emails again. All the best.
I’ll be back in the office on [end date] or after I’ve perfected my banana bread (whichever comes first)—and will respond to your message then.
Below you can find our 30 best out of office messages to add to your automatic email. Out of office messages for different situations – when you are on vacation when you are abroad when you are sick or when there’s a public holiday
To then turn it off after your break, you follow the same steps but this time you simply check Vacation Responder Off instead of Vacation Responder On.
The ability to schedule your OOO replies was literally the best feature ever to come to Outlook, and it took way too long.
The only thing I add to that boilerplate is if I’m working but mostly unavailable.
> When I get an answer from someone who reads his e-mails on vacation I’m pleasantly surprised.
This is the perfect out of office for anyone who just LOVES Christmas. As in, the sort of person who does all their Christmas shopping in September, wears Christmas-related apparel all November and December, and probably single-handedly organised the entire office Christmas party.
I know a lot of people who never vacation for more than a few days because the email backlog becomes incredibly stressful upon their return; this is one way to meaningfully combat that which is somewhat in the employee’s control.
In 2013, researcher danah boyd wrote a LinkedIn blog post advocating for the nuclear option which was framed in the piece as an “email sabbatical.” Coming back to an empty inbox after a vacation is should be a break from the insanity, not a procrastination of it,” boyd wrote of the decision to send everything to the trash.
If you’re out for several days, then sure, say when you’ll be back and leave info for who to contact in the meantime.
(Depending on your email host, the process of setting up your out of office assistant may vary. You can find a guide on how to access your out of office settings in Outlook here.)
Many businesses are using automated messages for retaining their customers and setting good examples for other businesses to follow. Using the auto reply messages rightly helps the business from taking impromptu decisions.
There are proven benefits of good mental health on overall wellbeing, job satisfaction and productivity at work. In these unprecedented times, peoples' mental and physical health will have been tested.
If you require immediate assistance, please email [email protected] in my absence. Thanks.