July 14, 2009
We are approaching the school holidays and the time of year when most parents use the bulk of their annual leave.
Phone calls go answered, emails go unread and post remains unopened. It's the time of year when UK Plc effectively shutdowns for six weeks.
There is nothing more infuriating when you send or forward an email to a colleague or key contact and you get their out of office message in reply. God damn! My urgent enquiry is now going to have to wait until you get back from two weeks with the kids on the Costa Del Sol.
But this got Guru thinking about what the best out of office messages disciples had come across.
Here's one for starters that disciple Noel received earlier this month.
Phone calls go answered, emails go unread and post remains unopened. It's the time of year when UK Plc effectively shutdowns for six weeks.
There is nothing more infuriating when you send or forward an email to a colleague or key contact and you get their out of office message in reply. God damn! My urgent enquiry is now going to have to wait until you get back from two weeks with the kids on the Costa Del Sol.
But this got Guru thinking about what the best out of office messages disciples had come across.
Here's one for starters that disciple Noel received earlier this month.
Sent: 10 July 2009 14:14So, please post a comment or email me your classic out of office messages. The best will receive six bottles of 'HR' wine - it's a lot nicer than it sounds, promise.
Subject: on annual leave and hoping to win the lottery and not come back
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Comments (5)
Hi guru. I love your posts BTW. I know pandering won't get me anywhere, but wanted to pass it along.
My Out of Office this year will say:
Nobody will be in HR for 2 weeks. Hope you can find someone else to whine to until then.
Posted by teresahrgirl | July 16, 2009 1:51 PM
Posted on July 16, 2009 13:51
The best "Out of Office " messages...
1. I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position. Be prepared for my mood.
2. You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn't have received anything at all.
3. I will be unable to delete all the unread, worthless emails you send me until I return from holiday on 24 August. Please be patient and your mail will be deleted in the order it was received.
4. Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been charged £5.99 for the first ten words and £1.99 for each additional word in your message.
5. The e-mail server is unable to verify your server connection and is unable to deliver this message. Please restart your computer and try sending again.
6. Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queuing system.. You are currently in 352nd place, and can expect to receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks.
7. I've run away to join a different circus.
8. I will be out of the office for the next 2 weeks for medical reasons... When I return, please refer to me as 'Margaret' instead of 'Steve'.
Posted by Out Of Office | August 4, 2009 3:42 PM
Posted on August 4, 2009 15:42
My favorite "Out of Office" story is about council workers in Swansea who erected a road sign informing motorists in Welsh "I am out of the office at the moment." Apparently, the English wording for the bilingual road sign was emailed to a translation service. When the automatic email response was triggered (in Welsh), workers assumed this was the translated wording for the road sign.
Posted by Sue Daniel | August 5, 2009 3:39 PM
Posted on August 5, 2009 15:39
This one got sent to me (and probably widely circulated!) and I think it scores on pure simplicity:
"At the beach - no laptop, no Blackbery, no Iphone...
Back on Sept 7th"
Posted by Steve Huxham | August 20, 2009 10:49 AM
Posted on August 20, 2009 10:49
How about a variation on a theme from teresahrgirl's list (No. 5)?
"Your message contained 15 characters too many for our system to accept at the present time. Please re-format and re-send."
As before, the wicked beauty of this concept is that when you do pick up the messages you can see who has tried several times to "comply" with the instruction!
Posted by Steve Huxham | August 20, 2009 10:56 AM
Posted on August 20, 2009 10:56