For many roles, of course, the sort of OoO described wouldn’t work. But there are a lot of roles where people would survive just fine letting their requests sit for an extra week before forwarding again. And especially at smaller companies where there they might be pressed for coverage when people are out, I think it’s great to normalise that a job is basically ‘off-line’ for a week or two so that the employee can rest and recharge.
I kept it even though I received it four years ago because it made me laugh so much!
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I get really annoyed at people that don’t have put up OOO messages and I am left wondering if they are out or just ignoring me. I collaborated with a woman who was out frequently but never put an OOO. She also got very prickly if she felt you were going around her. So anytime we didn’t get a response from her, we had to go through this guessing game of “do we wait, do we talk to someone else, how important is our request.” I was glad when she moved on.
I followed all the steps listed and can’t make this work for my iPhone 6s. Any suggestions?
You can get quite creative and figure it out by yourself. However, here’s an example.
Once I come back on *date*, I will get back to you. Maybe I can even tell you about my adventures.
Setting up an effective out-of-office autoresponder may seem to be a simple task. However, there is nothing worse than receiving an automated response that is not clear or useful. You want your “out of office” message to provide useful information and clarify why you are not available now. You certainly want to avoid any confusion or frustration.
Great article but I have two issues: everytime I use my phone I must say I am not driving, then remember to turn back on manual mode so DND turns on again… and the Urgent message distracts from my auto-reply encouraging customers to book appointments online… Any way to turn off the Urgent message? I haven’t found anyone at Apple that seems to know how to fix either of the above.
I had this at my old job, but only for internal calls. It was a completely different person on an old job site. IT couldn’t figure out how to fix it. Only one person complained at least, no matter how many times I told her I couldn’t fix it.
Something about it gets my goat up! Like she’s working and emailing me about things she wants me to work on, but her OOO is telling me to buzz off coz she’s too busy to get to my emails. Also she still has it set up and we’ve been in lockdown for over a week. How long does she intend to have her OOO triaging everything and making excuses for delays? We all know there’s a lockdown, that’s why everyone is scrambling for their events to be rescheduled – it just comes across as very self-important at a time where everyone is under stress. No one else in the organisation has this so it seems very bizarre to have an OOO while still working!
In 2013, researcher danah boyd wrote a LinkedIn blog post advocating for the nuclear option which was framed in the piece as an “email sabbatical.” Coming back to an empty inbox after a vacation is should be a break from the insanity, not a procrastination of it,” boyd wrote of the decision to send everything to the trash.
Auto-reply email sample: Hi [first_name], Thanks so much for reaching out! This auto-reply is just to let you know… We received your email and will get back to you with a (human) response as soon as possible. During [business_hours] that’s usually within a couple of hours. Evenings and weekends may take us a little bit longer.
I can’t remember if this was just an outgoing voice message before routing you to an individual, or for a voicemail, but I remember a fun December phone message from a small company (I think an insurance agency) sung to the tune of a Christmas carol–something like Jingle Bells. The content was something like: you’ve reached our office during this holiday season, hope your holidays are happy, please 1) leave a message or 2) press X for who you want. Other than the tune, it wasn’t overly holiday-centric (for those who don’t celebrate the holidays) and it was cute.
2. "Hi, you've reached [name] at [company]. If you need a quick response, please shoot me an email at [insert email address] and I'll be in touch by EOD tomorrow. If it's not urgent, leave me a message with your name and number. Have a great day."
5.( عملائنا الكرام، سيتم إغلاق مكتبنا في الفترة ما بين 24 ديسمبر إلى 2 يناير. يمكنك الوصول إلينا كالمعتاد يوم الاثنين 5 يناير. نتمنى لكم ولعائلتكم عيد ميلاد سعيد وسنة جديد سعيدة وناجحة.
“We went to New Zealand and I informed everyone in my [out of office] that I was ‘bungee jumping in Queenstown’, which seemed like what I should do in Queenstown,” the reader said.
Everybody wants to feel needed. It’s always best to set an automatic out-of-office response when you know you won’t have access to your inbox. Take advantage of the examples we’ve shown you and done right, this is a fantastic way to boost loyalty and gain e-commerce sales without being too pushy. Design a message that is funny or thoughtful to help you stand out from the crowd!