Thank you for your e-mail. Unfortunately, I will not be able to answer your e-mail from 25.08.2020 until 02.09.2020 Your e-mail has not been forwarded. During my absence please contact my team via this e-mail [email protected], raise a ticket or contact my team leader (YOUR TEAM LEADER’S NAME) [email protected].
I get why that would bug the hell out of you. But on the flip side, having worked with a lot of European colleagues who do this, it’s not that they’ll have to 8 hours of work on vacation, it’s that they won’t be working at all. So if your bit isn’t done by X date, then their bit won’t get done until they return. That’s just the culture there.
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Here are some samples and templates of automatic reply messages across various scenarios.
Thank you for your email. Please note that I will be out of the office on 5 February 2021. During this period I will have no access to my email. In case of something urgent, you can reach me on my mobile.
I do this, too, especially if I’m out for longer than a day or two. I like giving myself a bit of breathing room to dig out of the inbox.
I don’t have access to email because I don’t have a work cell & I don’t open my work laptop on my days off.
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!
But I'm someone who has co-workers in almost every time zone, on almost every continent, and in almost every geographic region, and I simply can't imagine using most of these examples with co-workers in, say, South Korea or Japan or Nicaragua. Like, the account manager who reaches out to me for help accessing a particular system in Seoul doesn't need my personal story about why I'm taking time off and all the fun (or, for that matter, not fun) things that I'll be doing — they need help gaining access to [system] in order to complete the job tasks that have been assigned to them. If I am not available to help them, they need to know who can, and if there just *isn't* anyone else who can perform this task, they need to know when I will be able to.
If you will be at Dream force September 15-18, let me know and I would love to find a few minutes to connect. You can learn more about Yes ware dream force presence here, including a party, both and in-office demos with catered breakfast and lunch.
Respected Customers. It is to inform you all that our head office which is situated in New Hampshire, street 345 will be closed due to the upcoming holiday season. During this period, I will not be able to respond to all your emails as I will be in the area where an internet facility would be unavailable as well as I am not taking my laptop with me. So, your queries will remain unanswered during this period. Moreover, there would be seven days off from 1-01-2020 to 07-01-2020. Hope to see you all in the office on 08-01-2020. Wish you the best holidays!
3.) Добро пожаловать в Консультационное Агентство «Вася Пупкин и Ко». Наши офисы в Берлине в настоящее время закрыты на период праздников. Вы можете связаться с нами в рабочие дни с понедельника по пятницу с 9 утра до 12.00, и с 13.00 до 6 часов вечера. По общим вопросам вы также можете обратиться к нам по электронной почте [email protected]. Большое спасибо. Мы желаем вам хорошего дня – ваше Консультационное Агентство «Вася Пупкин и Ко».
You can clarify that there’s a possibility that you’ll see the email before the return date, but you can’t guarantee it.
3. Delayed response templates. If you are working, but can't reply to emails easily, make this clear in your out of office message. This will easily set a sender's response expectations.
If instead you ask your co-workers to cc or bcc on replies then you will know which have been dealt with. (I think for internal mails it’s more reasonable to ask that if the original person contacts someone else, they cc you so you know who is dealing – and in smaller organisations where people know you personally you could also send a mail round the day before you leave to say you’re going to be out and to ask that any enquiries are directed to [name]in your absence, to try to avoid them coming into your inbox in the first place.
I’m with you, honestly! When the end was “she’s So great” and not “she’s so [sime negative adjective]” I was actually surprised. I thought it was annoying and condescending and all around extra. But I guess I see why some people (including the ooo boss) would think it’s funny.
The worst Out if Office I’ve seen wasn’t about the wording, it was how it looked. For some reason, some lawyer decided to write their OOO in lime green font against a deep blue background. SO GARISH. I could not read anything. Highlighting the text didn’t help either. Had to copy & paste it somewhere.
Since I’m out of the office for the Thanksgiving weekend, I’ll respond to your email with a list of 10 things I’m thankful for: Copiers that collate Co-workers that brew more coffee when they empty the pot Donuts on Mondays AND Fridays When IT surprised me with a new laptop AND remembered to transfer my files When You-Know-Who died at the end of book 7 Dry-erase boards that actually erase The brave soul who cleaned out the refrigerator When I’m early to an all-staff meeting and score a table near the door HR finally sent a memo telling people to STOP clipping their nails at their desk OOO autoresponders