Theoretically, writing an out-of-office message should be a simple and easy task. But when you’re swamped preparing for your vacation and cranking through last-minute tasks, it can fall off the radar and make even the most skilled writer blank on what to say.
Which is why I was thrilled to come across this OOO generator by Hubspot. All you have to do is plug in your name, your time off, where you’re going and what you’re doing, and the person of contact while you’re out and it’ll generate two personalized templates for you to copy and paste right into your email (if you enter the same information again you’ll get two new messages).
The great thing about this—besides doing all the work for you and making it fun—is that it ensures you cover everything. For example, how often do you forget to add an emergency contact only to come back from your trip swamped with “URGENT” emails that went unanswered?
Whether you decide to use this tool or not, just remember to set some kind of out-of-office notification whenever you’re not in the office for a period of time—whether it’s an email to your team or a generic pop-up along the lines of I’m out of office from now until Thursday, if you have any urgent requests please reach out to [email]. Otherwise I’ll respond as soon as I return. Trust me, it’ll save you a lot of headache when you come back from that relaxing vacation away.
Looking for more templates? Check out this one for taking a sick day, this one for going away for a day, this for going on vacation over the holidays, and this gem for not making your clients feel neglected while you’re gone, plus a few other random situations when you might be unavailable.