The good news: the email you sent got a record-time reply.
The bad news: there's no one on the other side of the "send" button.
Yes folks, it's vacation time; the season of MIA colleagues...robotic replies...the out-of-Office (OOO) message.
How crafty you get probably depends a lot on what kind of biz you work in...and whether after vacation, you still want, you know...your job.
So...in the interest of vacation season, we offer our few tips: short seems preferable to novella; sales pitches seem ill advised; and for heaven's sake, be careful of limericks. But since we're not on vacation (sigh), we offer...
*With thanks to Emily, Jessie, and the rest of my very smart colleagues
The bad news: there's no one on the other side of the "send" button.
Yes folks, it's vacation time; the season of MIA colleagues...robotic replies...the out-of-Office (OOO) message.
To Be Funny...or Not to be Funny
There's no shortage of roundups on what qualifies as a stellar triple-O. Bloggers seem to be torn on whether the best out-of-office messages are straightforward, "I'll be away until day/month;" or the more daring (if perhaps ill advised), "I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position." Frankly, we were a little surprised that one roundup felt it necessary to define what an out-of-office is (seems self explanatory). And we will avoid completely those that were too honest, too unfortunate, or too TMI.How crafty you get probably depends a lot on what kind of biz you work in...and whether after vacation, you still want, you know...your job.
So...in the interest of vacation season, we offer our few tips: short seems preferable to novella; sales pitches seem ill advised; and for heaven's sake, be careful of limericks. But since we're not on vacation (sigh), we offer...
What a Few Out-of-Office Messages Might Look Like*
- Out for a walk; no internet - Henry David Thoreau
- Gone Fishing - Herman Melville
- N_t _t my d_sk - Vanna White
- Out in the field...give me a ring - Frodo
- I'll be back - The Terminator
- Trying to stop the feeling - Justin Timberlake
- Gone for a ride - Paul Revere
- Had to fly - Superman
- Off to see the Wizard - Dorothy
- Hung up...will swing back in soon - Spiderman
- Could I BE any further from the office? - Chandler Bing
And finally...
In the interest of our multi-gen workforce:- Out of the office; if you need to reach me, leave a voice mail. Yes...on the phone. Some of us still listen to those - A Boomer
- I'm not here...does anybody really care? - Gen X
- Away 'til Tuesday...if this is my mom...get out of all your open browsers and hit restart - a Millennial
*With thanks to Emily, Jessie, and the rest of my very smart colleagues
