Decay On Net

Ever send an email to your colleague and got a "Out of office" reply? It's a common sight. But seriously, how many of these out of office message are useful?

If properly written, an out of message can provide a lot of information to the person who is sending email to you.

My out of office message will usually look something like this:

I'm on leave/MC/reservist and will be back on *date that I'll return*.

For urgent matters, please contact:
*Issue 1 under my charge* - *My coverer's name*
*Issue 2 under my charge* - *My coverer's name*

Else I'll reply when I'm back.
Thanks and have a nice day.

Simple, sweet and informative. :)

But then, I hate it when people just don't know how to write a good out of office message. Alot of time, I got this kind of out of office message:

Hi, I'm on leave.
Please contact *coverer name* for urgent matter

Which makes me wonder, when will you return? How long more do I need to bother your coverer?

Others just simply don't put the coverer's name:

Hi, I'm on leave and will be back on *date*

SO how? I go hunt high and low for your coverer if I got urgent issue?

Then there are others who simply don't know the purpose of setting out of office message:

Hi, I'm out of office

Sure, you left for your leave in a hurry until you didn't have time to write a proper "out of office message". But with this kind of out of office message, might as well don't set any lah.

But these are not the worst "out of office message" I've seen. The worst I've seen come from 1 of the china staff whom we outsourced our work to. He was on leave from friday afternoon to the following week's Tuesday. Here is his out of office message:

I am so sorry for missing your mail, I am not in office from today's
afternoon to next Tuesday.
I would be back to office on next Wednesday.

Err.... if I were to send you a email on Monday morning, I'll be darn confused. So exactly which afternoon will your leave begin and which wednesday will you be back?
*Confused look*


The above "out of office message" are all real. SERIOUS!
Anyway, below are some jokes "on out of office message"

I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to
get the position. Be prepared for my mood.

I'm not really out of the office. I'm just ignoring you

You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the
office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn't have received anything at
all.

Sorry to have missed you but I am at the doctors having my brain removed
so that I may be promoted to management

I will be unable to delete all the unread, worthless emails you send me
until I return from vacation on 4/18. Please be patient and your mail will
be deleted in the order it was received.

Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been charged $5.99 for the
first ten words and $1.99 for each additional word in your message

The e-mail server is unable to verify your server connection and is
unable to deliver this message. Please restart your computer and try
sending again.' The beauty of it is that when I return, I can see how many
in-duh-viduals did this over and over.

Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queueing system.
You are currently in 352nd place, and can expect to receive a reply in
approximately 19 weeks.

Please reply to this e-mail so I will know that you got this message.

I am on holiday. Your e-mail has been deleted.

Hi. I'm thinking about what you've just sent me. Please wait by your PC
for my response.

Hi! I'm busy negotiating the salary for my new job. Don't bother to leave
me any messages.

I've run away to join a different circus.



AND, FINALLY, ABSOLUTELY THE BEST:

I will be out of the office for the next 2 weeks for medical reasons.
When I return, please refer to me as 'Loretta' instead of 'Steve'.'

Posted by DK on Tuesday, August 30, 2005 at 8:20 PM