The out of office email
Nothing demonstrates our lack of understanding of how to use email than the out of office message.
As a quick reminder, email is an asynchronous communication tool. In other words, unlike a text or WhatsApp message, it doesn’t demand an immediate response. I’ve previously written about how you can become an email trailblazer and if you haven’t read that, then start there!
When it comes to the out of office email you don’t have to set it if you’re away from work for a day (it’s an asynchronous tool remember), however, if you’re away from your work for a longer period, then it’s respectful to let people know that you won’t be responding.
You should keep this simple. You don’t have to lay bare the details of your holiday (‘I’m in sunny Spain for the next two weeks’), your illness (‘I’m dealing with a medical emergency’), your event plans (‘I’m on a team building workshop’ or ‘I’m at a conference today’), your flexible working plans (‘I don’t work on Wednesdays’) or education arrangements (‘I’m at college today’).
It will save you time by simply having a line that you can reuse every time you’ll be out of the office for longer than two days. Feel free to copy and paste the following text and share this blog with others so they can do likewise:
‘I will be away from work until [date]. If your email warrants a response, I will reply after this date.’
Done.
