It got bad enough that others began begging someone to cull the list. Reply all, of course (thankfully it didn’t turn into an explosion of replies all). Someone finally did remove the email from the list.
My coworker went out on disability for surgery and left an ominous OOO saying she would be out and did not have a return date, multiple people contacted me bc they were freaked out. The message suggested people reach out to me in her absence and spelled my name wrong, we’ve been working together for 4 years.
.
It also doesn’t help that gmail has no ability to create an OOO schedule… like why can’t I have gmail turn on the message every day at 5pm, and turn it off every morning at 8am? We have the technology!
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 update your voicemail or turn on your email client’s out-of-office greeting, there are three basic things you must share in your message: When you’re leaving, when you plan on responding to your messages upon returning, and who they can contact if they need to talk to someone right away.
Live support will be unavailable during our closure. Emergency support requests should be submitted via our contact form or via Basecamp if your project is currently active. We wish all of our clients a very happy and safe 4th of July holiday. We look forward to working with you when we get back from a well deserved long weekend. See you next week!
When I started at my old job, they gave me a phone number in the directory but forgot to actually issue me a phone for several years! It was great.
I don’t include this much detail on my OOO, but I do include if I am out of the office for religious observance, because I don’t use electronics on my holidays and want people to know that I really won’t get their message until the holiday is over. (Unlike the norm in my workplace that otherwise senior people are checking email even if we’re sick or on vacation. I know, I know.)
Many in the MIT community will be taking vacation around the holidays and new year. If you’re in that group, you’ll want to set up automatic replies for your email and MITvoip phone. You can do this at work or at home. Read on for basic information and tips about auto-replies. Step-by-step instructions are available through the links provided.
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Other than that, I keep it simple like most folks here, but back in my younger days I had one that started something like “I am out of the office on vacation until (date). I will not be checking emails, voicemails, (work queue system), or generally thinking about this place at all…”
When Amy Spurling, cofounder of the company perks software company Compt, went on vacation, she ended her message with a clear direction about who to contact: “If you need immediate help, please contact [name and email address]. I will be responding to all emails on my return.”
I’m away from my desk overseeing online learning. Read: I’m trying to relearn long division so I can help my fourth grader finish this worksheet and reminding my first grader how to mute his Zoom. I’ll be back online this afternoon at 4 PM to read your message.
Huh. This is a rare column from you that I disagree with almost entirely. I guess to start with what I think you get right, there's no need to apologize for being out of office, and no one should feel obligated to deal with anything other than a legitimate emergency (which are, in most fields, truly rare) while on vacation or while taking time off.
I mean, this is what I pretty much did upon returning from my maternity leaves but I would never put it into an email! My maternity leave OOO was the vague “I am on extended leave and am not anticipated to return until X. Please contact Joe or Fergus in my absence.” X being a vague time-frame based on my due date and the length of my leave. No one is waiting 3+ months for an answer so I did get to delete most of the 500 emails I got during my most recent leave! I did once have someone internal tell me I should say maternity leave rather than leave, but really, what does it matter? I’m gone for a few months and no one outside of the company really NEEDS to know why.
Top of the iceberg though. Oh, and she also works with external contacts, including prospective clients.