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'OOO'

It is not often that I am swayed to post about listening to #BBCRadio2 and #ScottMills in the morning. But today’s morning show, while a little amusing, did remind me about the importance of exactly what provisions we put in place when away from the office, for whatever reason.

Scott seemed befuddled in receiving an auto reply informing him that the recipient of an email was ‘OOO’ and hadn’t realised that it means Out of Office. The auto reply also gave an alternative method of contact should the email be urgent and an expected return date.

What processes do you have in place when you are not available to handle emails, or telephone calls for that matter?  Are you or other workers disclosing more than is needed?

Emails:

  • “I’m on holiday”: You may or may not be at home, see below
  • “I’m away on holiday”: My home is probably going to be vacant, please feel free to visit, as ‘away’ indicates more than likely not a home.
  • “I’m off sick”: Why are you disclosing your special category health data?

Do you actually need to give a reason?  If you do, are you disclosing more information than you need to?  Are you disclosing your personal circumstances unnecessarily outside of the business realm?

Back to basics, keep it simple!

It’s usually acceptable to simply say, “I’m out of office” without providing a reason. But do consider:

  • Include when you’ll be out of the office or unavailable. You can provide a date range or simply your return date and when you anticipate being able to respond.
  • Provide a point of contact for further assistance while you’re out of office, especially for immediate responses or urgent matters.
  • If you have multiple points of contact, identify who should be contacted for what. Determine whether an email address alone will suffice or whether you need to provide further details like your contact’s phone number.

And of course, if you have been lucky enough to have actually been on holiday you can share that information on your return, should the need arise.  and only once you are back post the photos and videos on social media.

Phone/Mobile:

The same goes for voice recordings and/or when others answer the phone on your behalf, “I’m sorry (name) is not available at the moment” – and offer alternatives, “May I take a message?” “Can someone else help you?”