For all pressing matters, please contact [Contact Name] at [contact email] for assistance.
That’s also annoying because if it’s not someone I interact with regularly I will wonder if it’s been left on by accident.
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It was just this colleague – it (thankfully) wasn’t the culture of the office, and I never saw anyone else abuse the OOO like this.
Out of office messages are important because they let people know you are away from your regular work duties. These messages help businesses and projects run smoothly when a member of their team is away. They let people know you received their message and will respond by a certain date. This helps prevent confusion and frustration if someone is trying to communicate with you by email but not getting an answer.
When you’re trying to contact someone on a matter of importance (or even urgency) on one side of the equation and you find out via an autoresponder that they are away for vacation, it can be incredibly frustrating unless they’ve done the front-end work beforehand. (I’m speaking from personal – and recent – experience here. And worse, there was no auto-responder set up. I had to use the – gasp! – telephone to find out what was going on.)
I’ll be banning myself from my inbox, so if you need something before Monday 2/8, try Molly Fitzgerald, customer success manager extraordinaire, at [email protected]. If it’s urgent, she’ll know how to reach me as I watch my 14th consecutive episode of The Great British Bake Off.
Ha – I didn’t watch the video but still definitely get the condescension! It’s a LOT of extra explaining and direction when something like, “if you need immediate assistance, please contact Fergus at…” will do. In my opinion, cutesy stuff like this is mildly entertaining at the beginning but gets dumb/annoying shortly thereafter. Not just with OOO messages, but other instances where companies try to make being “cool/funny/laid back” parts of their brand in really obvious ways.
Then, all that’s left to do is turn it on before you abandon your desk, and get prepared for a relaxing holiday break—without feeling the need to be constantly tethered to your inbox.
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.
Now make your email unique when you are out for traveling for work and be a standard part of the job. If you are traveling to a conference you can set up your email.
Depending on your idea of holidays as no-business time of the year, you may decide to leave at least one communication channel open, or provide additional information in case of urgent inquiries. In any case, you can add the following information to the mix: You can provide your mobile number, while noting that it can be used only in exceptional situations You can leave contact information of a person that will handle correspondence in your absence You can inform your customers that you will only check emails with “URGENT” in their subject
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.
Related PostsFirst Grown Up Job Guide: Preparing for annual leaveHow to Survive the First Day Back at the Office After a HolidayHow to take guilt free annual leaveThe Perfect OOO Templates for Christmas Break
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Ahoy there! I'm currently getting my sea legs as I set sail on a cruise around the Mediterranean Sea! If you have any enquiries in my absence, you can contact the crew at Thrive by emailing Sarah at [email protected] or calling the office on 01325 778 786.
An out of office message lets you keep people informed and tells them how to proceed in your absence. You can also select options for urgent matters within your out of office message.
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.