Cube Farmer

Hi Kate,
It is a good idea to put your out of office on your email and it is so easily something that can be forgotten. How many times have you or someone else emailed someone at a company to get no answer and to then find out weeks or months later that this person was on leave, or has left the organisation.

The ones listed in your post are very funny and puts a smile on your face but it is a good reminder to make sure that you put your out of office on before you leave to have your holidays and fun.

One major thing that would say to make sure that is in the out of office is the staff member that can be contacted in your absence and also the date when you are expected back.

Everyone understands that the holiday season is upon us and are only to happy to talk to the person listed on the email reply or to wait till your return to the office.

I myself cannot wait for Christmas, summer and the holidays. It is always such a joyous time for me and the family. Have a great one everyone. 

Hi Kate,

Those are hilarious!!

I once received an out of office from someone who was attending a big cricket match. He said that he would only respond to emails if his team won!

I think these quirky responses allow a bit of personality to shine through and we all love a little bit of tongue in cheek

Hi Kate,

I don’t think I have laughed that hard in ages!! I absolutely love number 1!

My ideal out of office email reply would be something along the lines of: I’m not really out of the office. I’m just ignoring you. Please take a hint and refrain from asking me anymore vacuous and inane questions.

Great blog Kate!  Ah, wouldn’t it be fun to really be able to create an out of office message that summed up how you really felt!  You’ve certainly got some gems on your list.  For your personal email, you can go to town on a funny/cheeky message but at your place of business, there is not a lot of room for moving away from the standard.  I agree with Suzanne of Katoomba, it’s important to put the dates you are away for and importantly, a contact in your absence.

These are absolute gold!  The risk of getting fired for using them is almost worth it… almost.

It does raise an interesting question though, do people actually closely read the content of out of office replies?  If you were to throw in the line “I’m currently away travelling through time and will return last week” would anyone actually notice?

Especially love no.1 and Dylan’s comment - great! I guess I’d like to just say, “thanks for leaving me an e-mail, I’m currently on holidays in Hawaii and should I decide to return to work, you will certainly be considered for a reply in the not too far distant future.

hahahhaaaaaaaaaaa. I LURVE number 13!!!

This should be used by people in admin and payroll who in my experience are be some of the laziest workers I’ve ever met:

“I am currently out of the office due to an imaginary meeting or training session (I am most likley having an extended morning tea, gossip session or lunch) and will ignore your email in the same fashion as I usually do as soon as I get back to earning a ridiculously over priced salary for my level of skills”.

Kate, are you going to credit Emily Everywhere’s blog, where you pulled the Out of Office replies from and presented as your own?
I had a good laugh reading them on hers, and I laughed again reading them on yours, but credit where credit is due!

I’ve not actually set as a reply...it was a simple matter of copying into the format of an auto-reply (font, subject format etc) and sending to them when they sent me an e-mail...mine read:

“Please note that I’m currently out of the office, and will be returning <date>. If the e-mail is from , your e-mail has been deleted without being read and will not be addressed upon my return as is not deemed to be worth perusing”.

The phone call I received a short time later from her was priceless. The e-mail was unprintable.

Such a great idea for a post, Kate!

I recently emailed a very humourous colleague and got an out of office reply that said he was swanning around in Bali and while we could try and contact his co-workers, they’ll probably just palm us off.

I couldn’t stop laughing, because of course, we all know this is what happens and think about it as we’re writing it!

I guess you also need a very unique personality to get away with it if you work in a very professional environment though.

I love turning on the out of office and save up doing it to the last minute before heading away. My favourite one was setting a recent five week holiday ...bliss!

The only downside of course, is coming back and switching it off, that’s a real kick in the guts

The Out of Office thing is certainly useful but I’m always amazed at how many of my clients ignore the fact that I’m “Out of Office” and still expect an answer. I think some less tech savvy ignore or don’t understand the auto reply.

i enjoy setting up rules to auto reply to thendelete out of office emails to spam the mongrel that went on holidays.

“5. I will be out of the office and returning next week. I have incredibly easy access to a phone and email, but I assure you, it will not be used for work purposes. “

My absolute favourite as it’s so very, very true.

Im feeling much better today so I won’t be coming in