I will be away from 03.04.2020 until 13.04.2020. For urgent matters, you can contact (COLLEAGUE NAME).
Here’s one example out in the world, which jumpstarted me thinking about this topic:
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Hello, and thanks for your email! If you’re getting this message, it means I’m taking my annual two-week creative sabbatical—working on personal projects that inspire me, so that I can return to work full of fresh ideas for my clients, like you! I’ll respond to your note once I return to the office on [DATE]. In the meantime, here’s a question: What inspires you? Do that, today.
Such a system sends automatic replies to text messages and calls that you miss when not available in the office. A fully-functional app like Calls and SMS Auto Reply gives you a simple, convenient way to respond automatically to people trying to contact you when you are out of the office.
Oh, it’s part of a much larger set of problems. He will put in the subject line “don’t read until Monday,” also not understanding that when I say I do not look at my email on my off days, I really do not see them, because I don’t open my work email out of work. And that I have a personal email account, that is not my work account?
My absolute favorite was the one that literally said “hodilay”. Typo included, capitalization, or any other words, not.
But really, I think people who know you WFH will get your meaning and people who don’t know you WFH won’t care or feel misled if they find out you really work from home.
I’d be happier getting this than one of the out-of-office messages that provides waayyy too much detail — “I’m at home nursing an unhappy stomach, hope to be in tomorrow, but meanwhile am resting and checking email in between bathroom runs,” etc.
Notice: Office hour of [company Name] during [holiday name] holidays the offices will remain open from : am to : pm. [company name] will be closed on [date] and resume operations on [date].
One year my organization mistakenly left me off the phone directory. I made no attempt to correct that. The only people who could call me we’re those who knew my number; everyone else had to use email.
I do that for most cases. Occasionally I’ll change it to “I’m out of the country and will not have phone or email access.”
When I’m back in the office and going through emails, I’ll sometimes send a note of “I’m catching up on my emails and saw you had XX question – did you still need help with that?” before doing any in-depth research.
If you’ll be away for a portion of time observing a holiday, create a cheerful auto-reply in your absence! Instead of my phone, it’s the jingle bells that will be ringing until 1/2; I will be out of office until then, please expect a reply with 24 hours of my return. I’m leaving on a jet plane! The Stern Firm will be out of the office until 3/4 on a company-wide retreat. We will respond to all messages promptly upon return.
Same! If I’m on vacation then I say I have no access to emails. Even if I’m just sitting on my couch all week.
I set mine for long meetings (half a day or a whole day) or if I’m traveling. I do have clients who email about time sensitive issues and it’s better for everyone if they know I might not see their message for a few hours.
I used to work at a place where we would occasionally send reports of network misuse that sometimes included inappropriate images the user had stored on work devices. One person had an email system that was somehow set up to make any attached images the profile pic for that account. So she would end up with random pornographic images as the profile pic whenever she received reports from us. She said she had no idea how to change it and could we please help? Since she was not part of our company, and I have no idea how that could even happen, I just started sending her kitten pictures after every report that included an image. Problem solved.
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