But I will be taking periodic breaks from eating, binge-watching, and probably from cooking, too, to check my email [once per day/every evening/occasionally] while I’m away.
I don’t think it’s condescending, but I do find it annoying. I have a coworker who sometimes writes emails in this tone of voice, and it’s honestly way too much.
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She’s not sure how long that author would’ve argued with her computer until she turned it off.
I hate to break it to you, but I’m on annual leave until [end date] and will have limited access to my emails until then.
Set your personal email out of office message to reflect when you will return and if it is an emergency who they can reach.
Setting an auto-response email is probably not the first thing on our mind before we jet off on holiday. But if we don’t do it, we risk eroding the trust between ourselves and our customers. It’s important to remember that response time is a non-verbal sign that shows clients and business partners how responsible and professional a company is.
Don’t you worry: while I pretend to be Santa in front of my kids, my colleague, Hannah, will cover for me. Just email her at [email protected] if you need urgent assistance.
From the familiar to the more unexpected, peruse some of the different uses for automated text replies.
Yes, me too. It’s a lifesaver. Although to be fair, Outlook announces the fact that you’ve got an OOO message going out with a big yellow banner, so it’s quite hard to miss.
I think people still understand that out of office can refer to home office as well. But you could say “unavailable” or “away from work”.
Which to my mind lets people know when I’m back and that I will get back to them after that date, as well as who to contact for more urgent stuff. But every time, Wakeen gets teapot questions because people apparently can’t be bothered to finish reading and they both get questions on stuff that is not due for weeks after I return.
This used to drive my supervisor crazy, she’d email me “it looks like your OOO is still on.” I had to explain the rationale a few times before she understood.
In an instant, you feel a weight lifted from your shoulders, and a choir of angels sing Paul Kelly’s How to Make Gravy around you as you skip out of the office. You gaze upon the masses of workers on the tram, smugly wondering if their out-of-office responses are on yet.
Even if I do have access to my email while I’m vacation, I typically do “I’m out of office with no access to email or voicemail until (date). For anything requiring immediate attention please contact (boss).” If I happen to check my email I can still forward the important ones, but otherwise hopefully people get the message that I will not be responding.
I had a coworker once who hated it when she got somebody’s out of office message. I asked her why it got her so bent out of shape. “Because then I have to wait until they get back to send the message again!”
If you have a main email that customers use, set the email out of office message to reflect when you will return and if it is an emergency who they can reach.
If you’re going to be on vacation for a week or two, then it’s essential you set up your vacation email. If you miss the odd day, the world won’t implode, but if people don’t know you’re away for a few weeks and they don’t know exactly when you’ll be back, or who they can contact in your place, you’re going to have some unhappy clients or customers.