Editor's note: This post was originally published in February 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. Try This Effective Prospecting Voicemail Script [Tips Included] Sales | 12 min read
Oh I also saw one from a person who used to be my manager (thank goodness that nightmare is over). She had: – An extra space in the email address to contact in her absence, which would create a bounce back if someone tried to use it as she typed it. – Had a date that was clearly a “fill in the blank” that she didn’t look at, because it was something like “3th” instead of “3rd.”
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Exactly. It doesn’t matter if I’m sitting on the beach, on my couch, or in a hospital bed–I’m not reachable and you’re gonna have to wait until I get back or contact someone else.
Do you know what we’re doing too much of? We’re working too much, and we think too seriously about ourselves while doing it. That’s why including a joke or something fun in your out of office message could be so powerful.
When we have people go on maternity leave we normally arrange with them for mail to be forwarded directly to the person covering their leave, (but I’m in the UK so normally they will be out for 6-12 months)
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This message is really long. I’d probably just hit delete and try to get in touch with someone else.
There's no better feeling than Christmas approaching, but how do you achieve the perfect holiday... Get Your Office Into the Festive Spirit
Regardless of my general health and hygiene over the silly season, I’ll be back in the office on January 2. 15. “Thank you for your consideration during this festive or not-festive time.”
Feel free to share some examples of auto-reply messages that you have used or such that you’ve received. Include those in the comments below, and we can have a chat.
This seems like information that would be better in an email signature than an OOO, really. That’s how my organisation does it.
8. Office Closed for Thanksgiving. This is a great template to use for Thanksgiving holidays. Hi (specify the Name field id), Our office will remain closed until the end of this week for Thanksgiving Holidays.
Ha! Maybe she was short-circuiting someone who would send an email and then come over to her desk 5 minutes later to “see if you got my email.”
The example above (which comes from NY Times) may not take advantage of some of the tips we mentioned, but it’s great because it’s so short. Due to its absent-minded straightforwardness, such a message can be perceived as a real, non-automated reply — as if you were so busy that you only carved out a few seconds to type these five words.
The science fiction writer John Scalzi says “The failure mode of clever is asshole,” which seems to apply here.
This is too much. If someone said something like “I’m at the beach until Jan 5!” instead of “I’m out of the office until Jan 5,” I’d appreciate the slight personal touch. But don’t share too much. We just need to know that you’re not gonna answer our email for a while.
To help you write yours, here’s everything you need to know, along with a few out of office templates for you to choose from: