On how to phrase out-of-office emails

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

In my job I send a lot of emails, so I receive a fair number of automatic out-of-office replies (‘Thank you for your email. Please be advised that I am on annual leave until […]’).

Perhaps it’s just me, but I have always struggled with how to write these - and I have never read one that has felt quite, well… right.

Let’s start at the beginning. Do you start with a greeting? ‘Hello’? ‘To whom it may concern’? Any sort of greeting feels wrong - you aren’t there, and it is an automatic email sent to an unknown recipient - so any kind of salutation feels slightly forced and disingenuous. But, starting the email with a flat ‘I am out of the office’ feels blunt and slightly barbaric.

A strategy sometimes employed is to begin by thanking the sender (‘Thank you for your email’). I am wary of thanking people for emailing - as it’s not always appropriate to express gratitude for a communication. What if someone is writing with an unreasonable request or unjustified complaint? I say ‘thank you’ when I want to say I am grateful for a service that has been or will be offered; this is not necessarily the case with every email received.

The main bulk of it is straightforward enough - you say when you are away/when you will be back, and perhaps give contact details of a colleague (or sometimes my own mobile number in the case of an emergency).

Then there is the signing off bit:

Kind Regards (bit creepy)
Best Regards (generic, yet not always appropriate)
Best (Victorian)
Yours faithfully/sincerely (too formal)
Yours (creepy)
All the best (as if you might never see them again)
Ciao!/See ya!/Be good/Laters (too informal)

How you sign off on an email depends on your relationship with that person, which is unknown with automatic replies.

My go-to compromise with my own out-of-office replies goes thusly:

*Please be advised that I am on annual leave from to [y]. If you are emailing about [z], please contact my colleague [a] on **. I will read and reply to my emails on [c].

[my name]*

So, no greeting or sign-off, but it starts with a ‘Please’ and finishes with my name, which softens the blow a little bit. I’m not really happy with it, though.

Any thoughts?

2

I usually write:

I am out of the office until -----, with limited (or no, depending on where I am) email access. If you need a reply before I return, please contact ------- at ---------. Otherwise, I will reply to your email when I return. (if I’m out for a common holiday, I add, “happy 4th of July”, or whatever the holiday is.)

all the best,
puzzlegal

But I end most of my emails with “all the best”.

I start with “I will be out until DATE” because many people will stop reading at that point, that’s all the information they need. Depending on why and where I am out of the office, I may add

and I have no access to email
and I have limited email access

because if I’m out on a business trip, or home cooking for Thanksgiving, I will check my email a couple times a day, and reply to simple things, but if I’m on vacation on the lake with no internet service, I won’t.

I wouldn’t say anything about “annual leave” because that’s not a standard thing in my industry. Most people take some days here and there, and I might go on vacation for a week more than once in a year. But I assume that makes sense in your industry.

3

No offense intended, but you are way over-thinking this.

Hi, this is Mr. Mustard. I will be out of the office until 7/30/19. If you need assistance please contact X at X.com or 123.456.7890. Thank you.

BTW I am fine with an automatically generated ‘hi’.
mmm

4

I’m going to second the “you are way overthinking this”. All your recipient really cares about is “you won’t see this until ----” and possibly “if you need someone to deal with it before then, you should look to ----”

5

A related question, if I may: Do recipients usually understand the date in I am out of the office until date to refer to the last day out of the office, or to the first day back in the office? (I use the phrase I am out of the office until (including) date myself to avoid that ambiguity).

6

I take it to be the date of return. I sometimes write “I am at XYZ and will return on -----”, if XYZ is some known work-related event.

7

I agree. Way overthinking it. Mine is even shorter. No need for a greeting or sign off.

I’ll be out of the office until X. You may contact Y or I will get back to you when I return.

8

Or, MrLee, aren’t there other people in your office who send out-of-office notes? Just copy one of those, replacing the important parts with accurate information.

I assume styles of out-of-office notes vary a bit from place to place, with some being more complete paragraphs and others just sticking to the basics. Follow local custom.

9

I don’t mind the typical “Hi, I’m out of the office until [date], if this urgent, please contact [coworker] otherwise I’ll get back to you when I return.
Thanks,
Joey”

Something very casual and no extra information. When I get a reply seconds after I email you, I know it’s an automatic reply. If the email I sent you requires a reply (as opposed to when I send someone an invoice), I just want to be able to open it and get the info I need. When will you be back, who can I call/email today to get something taken care of.

As for the sign off, just do it however you always do it. I finish pretty much all my emails with “Thanks, Joey”, but you could leave your signature on if you use one.

Like mmm said, you’re overthinking this. It’s just a form letter, everyone knows that when the subject line in an email says “AUTOMATIC REPLY” or “OUT OF OFFICE REPLY”, it’s nothing personal. Literally no one is going to wonder why you signed off in such a formal way when you have such a casual relationship or vice versa. Hell, most people aren’t even going to read it and the people that do are just scanning it for a date and an alternative contact.

10

An out-of-office notice isn’t a message from you. It’s a message from an automated software. It doesn’t need to sound like it came from an actual person. Just state the information the recipient needs to know.

11

Perfect!

You can use ‘returning’ instead of ‘until’ to make it clear. They mean the same to me, though. You’d put the date you’re back at the office.

12

“I am on vacation and you are not.”
mmm

13

My thoughts exactly.

Thanks for your email. I am out of the office until such and such date.* If you need immediate assistance, contact So and So at (phone number.)
*(I will specify if I am on vacation or traveling for business. If it’s the former, you can bet I left my work phone at home or I’m not looking at it. If it’s on business, I will be checking it as I can.)

14

What I wrote depended strongly on where I was going. In some cases I was traveling and would check my email every night, so I wrote that I wouldn’t be able to respond immediately. In some cases I was in the middle of the ocean and wasn’t going to check at all for over a week, which is different.

Someone I know who is still working does a travel message, but still gets back to me within a day. It doesn’t matter to me that much but I can see why people might not trust his vacation messages and expect a response even when he is truly on vacation.
Besides that, simple is good. In mass emails I do I get lots of vacation bounces from lots of people, and most of them seem to be the default for the emailer.

15

Short and to the point… Thank you for your email. I will be out of the office starting Monday xx/xx/xx returning on Thursday xx/xx/xx with limited or no access to email. If your message is urgent please contact xxxxxxxx otherwise I will respond to your message when I return on xx/xx/xx.

16

People know that these are auto-generated, you’re not sitting there writing them, so they’ll forgive a fairly to-the-point approach.

If I’m unavailable e.g. at work but in meetings all day, mine is something like:

Hi

[date]: today I’m in meetings all day and will be checking emails only rarely. I’ll get back to you when I can, or you can try [alternate contacts] in the meantime.

If I’m on leave for a few days to a few weeks, pretty much the same except it’s “won’t be checking emails until I’m back on [date].”

I’ve got an extended leave period coming up (god, I love long service leave), and that’ll be similar, but will include a note that I’m likely to delete any and all emails unread.