Here’s one example out in the world, which jumpstarted me thinking about this topic:
One of the most important things to do when leaving office is to create an out of office auto-reply email. It’s a must for you to let your business associates and colleagues know how and when they will be able to reach you again. You should do that even if you are planning on just resting at home — it shows a certain level of professionalism.
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Open Outlook and click File in the menu bar. You can find this in the top left corner of your window.Then click Automatic Replies (Out of Office). The Automatic Replies window will then appear.
Eh, my team’s instruction to put them up if they’re going to be away from email/voicemail for more than an hour (standard lunch break). I have a ton of staff, and we’re in a business where a high degree of responsiveness, especially during the business day, is expected and few of my staff have mobile email. We’re also a larger organization with mixed project teams, and not everyone knows who’s PT/FT or on nonstandard hours.
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When it comes to creativity, relatability is the biggest asset when it comes to appealing masses. Gini is a PR maestro, and his out of office reply strikes the right chords effortlessly. He refers to Field Of Dreams, and the overall message is strikingly convincing. It instils a sense of empathy for Gini, and one cannot fail to appreciate the creative value, thanks to the filmic reference. They are most likely to be happy about Gini’s OOO truce and won’t mind even if he stays out for some more time! Have a look at it:
Don’t beat around the bush! This is an expression that means you should get to the point. That is, you should make your message direct and brief. This will let the recipient quickly know that you’re not available and who they can contact instead. You can start with a simple greeting and then proceed to the message like in the following examples:
Of course, every message sends a message, even a barebones OOO that seems to say nothing more than that you’re away until next week, so why not try to inject a little personality? You could get quirky by giving your auto-responder robot a personality. You could dispense with words altogether and substitute a gif or emojis. Or how about a little retro concrete poetry – you know, where you arrange your words on the screen to form an image of a palm tree or a pina colada? It might be worth noting here that the amount of personality you inject depends on your trade. What earns you cachet in the creative industries might backfire in the financial sector, for instance.
I have a message saying I don’t listen to voice mail, because I only see that a message has been left after several days. No idea why the lag, it’s been the same despite going through two phones and two operators. There are always other ways to contact me. Last time I got voicemail it was the police, the officer was calling from a landline so he couldn’t text. Luckily it wasn’t urgent (he needed a witness statement, but I hadn’t witnessed anything of interest to the court).
Found it! (Reddit’s own search functionality is garbage, but it’s so easy to google for reddit posts, thankfully)
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Having easy access to your work even when you away from the office doesn’t mean you don’t take time to disconnect and relax for a while. You deserve to take a break, muting all the mailboxes and switching off your work phone for a couple of days or weeks. However, there is a lot you should put in place before going away from your office, in the true sense.
I’ll add “with limited access to email and voicemail” if I’m out because of work-related stuff (back when we used to have offsite meetings!), and “with no access to email and voicemail” if I’m truly on PTO.
I regret to say that I am currently out of the office due to vacation. During vacations, I will have limited access to email and won’t be able to respond to you timely. I will be having my laptop and Android phone with me and try my best to respond to any urgent email. If you feel that your query is urgent, and you need a quick response to send me an email on [Email].I am leaving behind my assistant whose name is Lewis. You may ask him anything regarding the official work otherwise I will respond by email for the time when I come.
Earlier this year, British comedian Steve Coogan underscored a growing trend to rethink the OOO when he used it not to advertise his own absence, but rather the return to our screens of his blazer-clad alter ego, hapless media personality Alan Partridge. Written in the broadcaster’s inimitable voice, it had stern words for anyone who dared email him: “I’m not in the office so both cannot and will not respond to your email,” it began. “If your email is urgent, perhaps you should have tried calling instead. The very fact you were content to type out your query long hand and settle back to wait for a reply suggests you can wait, even if you’ve put a red exclamation next to your email to make it stand out in my inbox. Won’t wash with me, that.”
If you’re at a work event (e.g. a conference)If you’re off sickIf you’re working from a different location
Yeah, I have to agree. It’s a lot of explaining of things that are likely to be obvious to many people, as though they haven’t considered these options, but that they have to sit through anyway in order to get the information they need about who to contact. And the people who most need to listen to it probably won’t.