Every year — right before our annual winter break — I start brainstorming my out-of-office message. I want to be creative, and write something funny, meaningful, and clever. “This year,” tell myself, “I’ll write a note that will make my teammates smile and miss me.”
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5 Ways to Take Your OOO Message to the Next Level
Tips from our team members.
December 19, 2023
HBR Staff; Yagi Studio/oxygen/Getty Images
Summary.
Do you struggle with writing a great out-of-office message? This year we’ve asked our team to put together a few tips that might inspire you:
- Have some fun with it. You can use your out-of-office to drop a few fun facts about your time off. If you can make someone smile, you’re on your way to building a deeper connection with them.
- Use your message to set boundaries. To save yourself a headache, you can tell your colleagues you won’t be reading messages upon your return, and ask them to email you anything important once you get back.
- Write one message for internal colleagues and one for external clients. Each message serves a different purpose: Let you colleagues know where you are and how to reach if something is urgent. Let your clients know other resources they can use to help them while you’re out.
- Give a thoughtful recommendation. In your OOO message, suggest a thoughtful podcast or article for people to read. Recommendations are great conversation-starters for when you get back.
- Try to sound like a human — not a robot. Share a piece of personal information about where you are and why. It gives people something to react to and they’ll learn a little more about you.