When you take time off in the coming holiday weeks, here are three things you shouldn’t say in your out-of-office email reply.
These automatic responses would be a waste of time for you and the people who get them, according to business author and blogger Laura Vanderkam:
- “I’ll be checking messages at …” If that’s the case, you don’t need to bother with an out-of-office message.
- “I’ll be late into the office on …” Out-of-office replies are only necessary when you are truly out of the office and won’t be available to respond to anything for a significant block of time. It’s OK to let people wait some time for a response.
- “I will return messages when I return on Monday.” Leaving that auto-reply on Friday is unnecessary because most people assume you are out of the office over the weekend.
Point is, keep it simple. Email is a fast communication channel, and if you offer 24-hour customer service you must respond to those inquiries. Regular business communication will almost always wait for in-office business hour responses.
