The holidays are upon us. We’re currently in the nebulous place between Thanksgiving and the end of December holidays. That means that there will be some out of office messages being sent back to your inbox a few times a week, at least.
But when it comes to writing your own out of office message, do you know how to ensure that your teammates, colleagues and external parties get the right information from your note? We’re going to break down the 6 best tips for writing the perfect out of office message to take you through this holiday season and beyond.
Why Do You Need An Out of Office Message?
Typically, providing an OOO instant reply when you’re out of the office for more than a day or two is standard. Why? It’s helpful for not only the people reaching out, but also your peace of mind. I, personally, always feel better about taking time off during the holiday season when I know my emails will be replied to with a concise explanation of my time off and when I’ll get back.
It’s also important to set expectations with the person who reached out – whether you’re in a client facing role, at a bootstrapped startup, or just dealing with internal matters. Having an out of office message programmed helps the person who reached out to you better understand the expectations and boundaries you’ve set for your time away.
An out of of office message should also, ideally, provide resources for the person reaching out. For example, if you’re working in a marketing role and a customer needs to reach out about a case study correction, having an additional email for them to ping while you’re away makes the sender feel heard. If you don’t have a huge team, even just including your company’s Help or Contact email as an outreach point is a great place to start.
OOO messages also prevent people from, annoyingly, calling or trying to outreach to you in other ways. No one wants a Christmas eve phone call from a client because they haven’t heard back from you in 4 days. To spare all of us that pain, it’s best to have an OOO set with a time frame specified.
Even if you’re just taking a day or two off for personal reasons, holidays aside, an OOO protects your work-life balance and ensures that you’re given the time you need to address personal matters.
6 Tips for Out of Office Messages
Here are our best practices for out of offices messages, which you can incorporate into your arsenal if you so choose.
1. Use Templates or Hive Mail
If you’ve been out of office before, you can set the pre-existing message as a template. That way, the message can be re-used and saved for the next time you’re out. This helps eliminate errors or omission of important details.
Better yet, Buzz in Hive Mail can craft the perfect OOO message for you with a simple prompt. Buzz is our brand-new AI email assistant that can help wrangle and organize your inbox year round, but he’s especially helpful during high-pressure or high-stress moments.
Buzz has all of the context needed from your previous emails, out of offices, and workspace activity, so he can write the perfect out of office message without you even having to think about it.
Try Buzz now to get your perfect OOO message for the end of the year.
2. Provide a timeline
Listing the timeline for your time off, or when you’re planning to return, is one of our top email best practices for out of office messages. Telling people exactly how long you’ll be away can help manage their expectations around your reply. You can also list a estimated time of reply once you get back, for example “I’ll reply to your message within 48 hours of my return.”
This, again, helps sets a good boundary and lets people know that you plan to address all outstanding items in a specific time frame.
3. Add alternative contacts
Especially important if you’re working with clients or external parties, adding an alternative contact is a great way to make sure people know there’s another option for urgent contact. For example, if you’re on a marketing team of 5, giving the most relevant teammates’ email as a potential for urgent items is extremely helpful for all involved.
Another best practice is to ask the teammate for approval before putting their email in your out of office message. I’d highly recommend getting approval from that teammate at least 48 hours before you leave the office, in case you need to find a backup plan!
If you’re a Hive user, an alternative here could be adding a Hive Form link in your out of office. If you anticipate a large volume of requests, or if you’re out for more than a week, adding a Form can help consolidate requests. Once someone fills out the Hive form, it will go right into an action or project that you can tackle when you’re back.
4. Utilize professional language
It might be tempting to add a funny GIF or meme to your OOO, and while that might fly for some companies, it is usually safest to keep things professional. You never know who is going to email you and receive the OOO in reply.
Starting the email with a quick phrase like “Hope you’re well!” can go a long way, as well as signing off in a professional manner.
5. Additional information about absence
For these last two best practices for out of office messages, these are more suggestions and not “must-dos.” If you’re out for a longer period of time, it can be helpful to leave context about your absence. For example, if you’re on a three month maternity leave – giving that full context can help people understand that you likely will not be responding to their email at all during that three month period.
On the other hand, if you’re at a work conference and have an out of office message up that indicates you’ll simply be slow to reply because of the event, it also helps give additional context to the recipient. And maybe they’ll even be at the event too!
6. Short and sweet
Keeping OOO messages short, sweet, and to the point is usually best. If you need to add extensive amounts of contact information, additional resources, or other notes, then this will not apply. But typically, having 3-4 sentences in your OOO message is more than enough.
Also, a short subject line that explains your timeline for absence can also help consolidate the contents of the OOO email.
Out of Office Message Templates
Now we’ll step into some out of office message examples that we’ve built out with the help of Buzz. Feel free to copy and paste these into your emails, or try Buzz here.
Holiday Out of Office Template
Hi there,
Thank you for your email. I am currently out of the office for the holidays and will return on [return date]. During this time, I will have limited access to email.
If your matter is urgent, please contact [alternate contact name] at [alternate contact email] for assistance. Otherwise, I will respond to your message within 48 hours of my return.
Best regards,
[Your Name]
[Your Title]
[Your Company]
Vacation Out of Office Template
Hi there,
I am out of the office on vacation from [start date] to [end date] with limited/no access to email. I will respond to your message when I return on [return date].
For urgent matters during my absence, please contact [alternate contact name] at [alternate contact email].
Thank you,
[Your Name]
[Your Title]
[Your Company]
Work Conference Out of Office Template
Hi,
Hope you’re well. I am currently out of the office attending the ABC conference from [start date] to [end date]. I will be checking email intermittently but response times may be delayed.
If your request is time-sensitive, please contact [alternate contact name] at [alternate contact email]. Otherwise, I will reply as soon as I am able.
Thank you for your understanding.
Best,
[Your Name]
[Your Title]
[Your Company]
Maternity Leave Out of Office Template
Hello,
Thank you for your message. I am currently out of the office on maternity leave and will be returning on [return date]. During this period, I will not be regularly checking email.
For assistance while I am away, please reach out to:
- General inquiries: [name] at [email]
- [Specific area/project]: [name] at [email]
I appreciate your understanding and will not be able to respond until I am back in the office.
Best,
[Your Name]
[Your Title]
[Your Company]
Out of Office Message FAQs
Now we’ll go over a few out of office message-related questions we’ve heard people talk about and ask.
Do I need to leave an alternative contact if I’m away for one or two days?
It’s best practice to leave an alternative contact if your absence will stretch past 48 hours. If the time you’re away is equivalent to the typical amount of time it takes you to reply to emails (or less), there’s no need to add an alternative contact.
Can I use the same message for all contacts?
Yes. There’s no reason to have multiple different responses set up for different types of emails. Don’t stress yourself out by having variations based on outreach. If you need to provide multiple contact points, you can add more than one email resource as a contact point while you’re out.
When should my out of message be set up or go live?
Usually, email providers will have a scheduling functionality that you can leverage to set up the specific time you want the reply to go live, and when you want it to be turned off. We’d recommend making sure your out of office message is all set up 24 hours before your leave.
How do I set up an out of office message?
If you’re using Google and Gmail, you can click the settings icon -> All Settings -> Out of Office Reply. Make sure you save the message by clicking “Save Changes” to ensure your out of office message is secured.
In Outlook, you can go to Settings -> Automatic Replies -> Turn On. Here’s a bit more information on the settings in Outlook.
