Out of office

📨 How do you do OOO?

Aug 17, 2024

Welcome! In this week’s issue, we’re focusing on “out of office.” I’m glad you’re here.

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I put my out of office on the other day. Perhaps you have, too. It’s August, after all.

black framed eyeglasses on gray laptop computer — Photo by Medium Rare on Unsplash

In the weeks leading up to it, I made plans for coverage while I was going to be out. I huddled with my team. I briefed my manager. I let my clients and other key contacts know. And then I drafted my out of office message.

You know the type:

I am currently out of the office, returning <date>.
I <will/will not> be checking messages.
In my absence, please contact:
<for these kinds of requests>: <this person>
<for those kinds of requests>: <that person>
….

I strive to be concise, clear and helpful.

How do you handle out of office (OOO)? Are you the type of person who stays connected, triaging email during your vacation, or do you fully unplug?

Why or why not? We can learn from each other. Share your experiences in the comments below.

Auto delete

Some of our colleagues in Germany have another option: auto-delete. Do you know about this? I remember first hearing about it several years ago. Here is a TIME story from 2014:

Daimler…has implemented a new program that allows employees to set their email software to automatically delete incoming emails while they are on vacation. When an email is sent, the program, which is called “Mail on Holiday,” issues a reply to the sender that the person is out of the office and that the email will be deleted, while also offering the contact information of another employee for pressing matters.
“The idea behind it is to give people break and let them rest,” says Daimler spokesman Oliver Wihofszki. “Then they can come back to work with a fresh spirit.” Not to mention, an empty inbox.

As someone who sometimes dreads processing the hundreds of unread emails that await whenever I return from an extended out of office, it’s an intriguing idea. How about you?

Here’s what the experience is like for those that email you, according to CNBC:

In a TED Talk earlier this year, psychologist Adam Alter described Daimler’s messages as saying, “This person’s on vacation, so we’ve deleted your email. This person will never see the email you just sent. You can email back in a couple of weeks, or you can email someone else.”

How would you react to this? Should more companies follow Daimler’s lead?

Go deeper

OOO in the news

A surprising number of articles have been written about the lowly out of office message. Here is a selection from two sources, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, in reverse chronological order. I’ve excerpted a few tips, examples and perspectives for your convenience.

The New York Times

Out of office messages have been covered by the Career, Fashion, Mind, Smarter Living and Style desks, suggesting that either there are many angles to consider or it’s a topic that keeps on giving:

Email Auto-Responses for Your Mental Health (NYTimes Mind, 2021)
What Should I Put in My Out-of-Office Message? (NYTimes Style, 2019)
Your Best Ways to Say ‘Sorry, I’m Out of the Office’ (NYTimes Smarter Living, 2017)
What You’re Truly Saying With Your Out-of-Office Reply (NYTimes Smarter Living, 2017)
The Art of the Out-of-Office Reply (NYTimes Fashion, 2015)

“I am currently on vacation and not accepting any emails about anything. I’m not planning on reading any old emails when I get back, either, because that feels antithetical to the vacation experience.”

Mastering the Out-of-Office Message (NYTimes Shifting Careers, 2007)

Whenever I travel, I use an out-of-office e-mail asking that people try me again after the date I say I’ll be back in the office (a date at least a day after I really will be back in the office). When I get home, I can quickly scan the in box to see if there is anything from senders who are very important in my life, or if there is a particularly intriguing subject header. Then I pretty much mass delete. Catching up on post-vacation e-mail takes only a few hours (mostly in scanning periodicals and newsletters I’ve missed). And a few days after I get home, messages start coming in from people who make it a point to know the day I said I was returning.

The Wall Street Journal

The WSJ has been covering out of office messages for over a decade:

I’m Out of the Office. Really. (WSJ, 2022)

To avoid having your message land poorly, use language that assumes you don’t know the recipient well and that they have more power than you, says Erica Dhawan, a St. Petersburg, Fla.-based leadership consultant and author of a book about digital communication.
Keep your note to two or three sentences, because being brief signals you respect people’s time, she says. Include an emergency contact and when you’ll be back. But feel free to hedge, publicly sharing a date that gives you some buffer time upon returning.

Out-of-Office Replies: Can a Strongly Worded One Set You Free? (WSJ, 2019)

Perhaps it makes more sense to designate yourself as reachable or unreachable, to be clear about into which camp you fall,” agreed Jaclyn Johnson, founder of the careerists’ platform Create & Cultivate, who said a firm black or white stance beats giving people the slightest opening.

A Battle Plan Against Haughty Out-of-Office Replies (WSJ, 2016)
French Workers Turn On 'Out of Office' (WSJ, 2014)
The Best 'Out of Office' Auto Reply Is One You Stick to (WSJ, 2014)

Regardless of how informative or direct your message might be, it is useless if you're not sticking to it. Once we break the out-of-office seal by responding to co-workers and other colleagues, the floodgates are open.

The Secret to Disconnecting? Bring Back the ‘Away’ Message (WSJ, 2013)

For the messages that still come in, you can help yourself a bit using the text replacement settings on your phone. On the iPhone you can go to Settings > General > Keyboard, choose Text Replacement, then tap the plus sign. Create an entry where typing “vacay” becomes “Hi! I’m on vacation, and not checking messages. I’ll get back to you when I return.”

I'm Out of the Office. No, Really. I Am. (WSJ, 2013)

Leslie Perlow, a Harvard Business School professor and author of Sleeping With Your Smartphone, says time off (and tuning out) can be an exercise in humility, as employees learn that "the world functions just fine when I'm out." By delegating responsibility before departing, workers can see that their companies don't collapse with their absence, and may be more inclined to take real vacations going forward.