The away message is one of the most formulaic features of the modern workplace, so much so that most of it seem to be derived from a Mad-Libs game: “I’ll be away from the office [date] with limited access to email. If your message is urgent … “etc. etc.
The Writer Charlie Warzel recently released a devastating dismantling of this standard form response. In fact, the OOO usually starts with a greeting followed by an apology with the effect of “I’ll reply more slowly than usual”, with colleagues on hand in the event of an urgent request. That’s crap, argues Warzel, in a hate speech that offers a multitude of alternatives to the staid reaction we all know and loathe. You should have more fun with it, he says. Be more honest about your actual availability (which hopefully is extremely limited – it’s your vacation after all) and just make your answers generally more colorful and therefore better overall.
Much ink has been spilled for polishing up such boring corporate formalities over the years, but I want to defuse and simplify this term: the only thing your OOO needs to convey is the brutally honest reality that you shouldn’t be checking emails and not expected until you come back are on the clock.
How to write an effective out-of-office message
The aforementioned ad-lib formula is a holdover from traditional office culture that is about to die – now more than ever. There are many guides try to teach the uninformed about the most professional way to create an OOO, but unfortunately they all maintain the notion that we must at least instill a willingness to respond to a business email even when we are not working.
G / O Media can receive a commission
Too many of us work in an “always-on” work culture that prioritizes an incessant flood of digital notifications arriving around the clock. These messages can come in Slack, email, or text messaging, but they all have one thing in common: They remind you of the ever-present demands of work.
I would argue that the only way we as workers can hope to counter this onslaught is to put tighter boundaries between our work hours and personal time – and part of that is to produce OOO responses that are clear Make that email, Slack, phone calls, and Zoom meetings won’t be a priority – or even an issue – until a vacation is over. This doesn’t mean you have to give a hostile response; something like “I’m on vacation from vacation [insert date] until [insert date] and won’t check any emails until I come back “would do fine.
It really is – you no longer have to bid the sender as your vacation time should be yours and you alone.
Why is your out of office message important?
Think of this small change as the first frontline in the fight against the always-on-work mentality. The US work culture is notoriously relentless, especially when compared to our colleagues in other countries who enjoy more flexibility: France passed a labor law in 2016 that formalized “right to separation”, That is, “Employees don’t have to take calls or read e-mails related to work during their free time.” Many corporate leaders in America would probably dismiss this type of worker protection as frivolous, but it should at least inspire people here, their free time actually to use instead of just taking them.
