5 Best Examples of Out-of-Office Email Messages

Before packing your luggage and disconnecting your work phone, you should cross the last item on your to-do list: informing your coworkers, business partners, and clients of your imminent absence. You can write your out-of-office email or use one of our free samples; send the out-of-office email by yourself before going on vacation or set up an autoresponder email message.

It’s important to maintain a neutral, friendly tone and give all the necessary information without sharing personal details. The out-of-office email should be professional and invite the receivers to future dialog. It should be straightforward and concise. Furthermore, it may be a marketing ingredient that keeps your clients and business partners engaged and assures them you’re still there for them even if you’ll be away for some time.

If you want to setup an out of office message, an automatic email reply, or autoresponder email messages for your vacation, that go out to colleagues, and customers we have multiple professional examples for you.

Note: Out of office messages are also known as OOO messages. OOO being an abbreviation for out of office.

What to include in an out-of-office email message?

Whether you send the email yourself or set up an autoresponder email message, it should include relevant information regarding your absence. Start by mentioning how long you’ll be out of the office and why. Assure the receivers that you’ll get back to them as soon as you return to the office but stay away from firm dates. If the case, provide your contact data for emergencies or the colleague’s contact details in charge of your tasks in your absence.

Don’t forget about opening and ending formulas but keep everything professional and neutral. It’s usually isn’t a good idea to start your vacation email to colleagues with ‘Greetings from Hawaii’ or other meant to be funny expressions. It’s even more important to use an appropriate tone and check your email for typos when you set up an automatic response. You don’t know who might contact you.

How to set up an out-of-office autoresponder email message in Microsoft Outlook?

Suppose you want to avoid a delayed response and making a bad impression on essential people, set up an out-of-office autoresponder email message. Microsoft Outlook is one way to do it. Based on your Outlook version, the out-of-office settings may be under the Tools menu (Outlook 2007), under the File menu (Outlook 2010), or in the Mail tab of the Settings window under the name Automatic replies (Outlook Web version). Here are the steps you have to follow in Outlook 2010, the desktop version:

1. Go to File -> Automatic Replies (Out of Office). 
2. Check Send automatic replies option
3. Check Only send during this time range option and select the start date and the end date of your vacation
4. Microsoft Outlook allows you to send different email contents to people inside and outside of your organization. Use this option wisely and personalize the messages.
5. If it’s the case, create rules that will apply to incoming messages while you’re out of the office. For example, you may want to ignore spam messages or messages from a specific email address.
6. Press OK to save your settings.

If you’re using Outlook for Office365/Exchange, you can find more details on how to set up an out-of-office automatic reply by watching this video:

Best examples of out of office email messages

Based on your job description, position within the company, and the people who usually email you, we’ve created a few different email examples for holidays. Choose the one that fits you and personalize it as you wish. Remember that it’s important to add a personal touch to the out-of-office email you send. It will help you create better work relations and improve communication with your clients, suppliers, and business partners.

Sample 1: Vacation email to colleagues

Sample 2: Out-of-office email to people outside your organization

Sample 3: General out-of-office email example

Sample 4: Out-of-office with a delayed response email

Sample 5: Out-of-office for public holidays email

For easy vacation requests and tracking, vacation calendars for the entire team, and automatic updates each time an employee takes time off. You can use excel calendar templates for 2022 and other holiday budget templates and travel itinerary excel template by Excel Downloads.