Out of office messages

What do you think of out of office (OOO) messages? You know the ones. The bland, “I’m currently away from the office and will be back on…”

I’ve enjoyed writing for a long time. I guess when you’re told often enough that you’re good at something, you start to believe it. So, many years ago, when the company I was working for sent out advice about what content should (and should not) be in an out of office message, my creative juices got flowing and I penned mine:

I am not here, so...
Your email, I cannot see.
Urgent? Please text me.

Now, over the years and depending on how long I’m away, I’ve changed it slightly; mainly the last line has been altered to: “Urgent? Try Andy.” or “Urgent? Try Toby.” Fortunately, for the last decade or so, my managers or alternative contacts have always had two-syllable names. That’s important, you see, because my message is a loose attempt at a Haiku, a very precise, 3-line poem where the first line is 5 syllables, the second line is 7 and the third line is again 5. The key missing element to mine is an allusion to nature, but I’m okay with that.

I remember once, I penned a couple verses to the tune of Food, glorious food from the musical, Oliver! Thankfully, the person watching my progress at the time worked well into the poem. Sadly, I only used it once, and I didn’t keep a copy, but I vaguely recall that it went something like this…

Leave, glorious leave...
Can't wait to be done now.
Leave, glorious leave;
Two weeks with no email.

While I'm away, Mark's your man
To answer all of your needs --
Just please, don't go cra-zy,
Be patient, I plead...
Cause he is not me.

There is, of course, a fine line between cute and professional. And a person makes choices about how they wish to be perceived at work. Personally, I made a conscious decision to be seen as clever and creative with words. I was involved with many writing projects to several important audiences, and participated regularly as a “One Voice Champion” to help with editing content to reflect the company’s writing style. So, when it came to using poetry in my Out of Office message, it was a way for me to show my personality and my expertise as a copy writer and editor.

An out of office message means a slight inconvenience to the reader; they will experience a delay or a less expert response than they were expecting. I’m proud to say that more than once I received responses to the automated message — telling me that it made the reader smile. To me, that is vindication indeed, of letting my personality shine through, even on something as mundane as the OOO automated response.

What about you?

Do you use a run-of-the-mill, bog standard out of office message, or do you add some personality? Share your out of office message experiences with us below. Want some help penning yours? Just ask and we’ll have a go at offering you a suggestion.

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