This article was co-authored by Elaine Lou Cartas and by How.com.vn staff writer, Caroline Heiderscheit. Elaine Lou Cartas is an award-winning Business & Executive Career Coach and the CEO of Elaine Lou Coaching, based in Los Angeles, California. With over 10+ years of professional experience, Elaine guides women of color, and allies, who’ve established themselves in leadership and executive roles to create a holistic life so they can lead without sacrificing their well-being. She was awarded #1 Thought Leader by LA Weekly + Top 5 Business Coaches by Apple News for 2023. Her career advice has also been featured in Fobes, Business Insider, Money Magazine, and LinkedIn News. Elaine is also the host of the Color Your Dreams Podcast (https://elainelou.com/coloryourdreams/). Elaine received her Bachelor's degree in Psychology and Sociology from the University of California, Irvine; and her Master's in Leadership and Management at the University of La Verne.
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You're getting all prepped for that special time with your little one—how exciting! How can you craft the perfect automated email to man your inbox while you're away? Don't worry; it's easy! Whether you want something formal, basic, silly, or sweet, we've included super simple templates for you to copy and paste. Plus, we'll run through all the main points that your email should touch on and offer some pro tips for you to follow, too. Read on for more.
Things You Should Know
- State the specific date that you'll be back from your leave, and if relevant, who people can contact in your absence.
- Choose an email tone that fits your company's culture. For more formal environments, for example, choose a super professional template.
- Or, if you work for a more casual company, send yourself off in style. Choose a silly or sweet out-of-office message instead.
Steps
Writing Your Email
Choose a tone that suits your workplace, role, and comfort level. Depending on your job environment and personal style, your out-of-office (or, OOO) message might look totally different. In stiffer, corporate environments, you might choose to write in a more formal tone. On the other hand, if you work in a more casual environment, you might choose to entertain your colleagues with a sweet or silly automatic response instead.[1]- Not sure how to determine your office’s style? Look at old emails! If all else fails, look closely at the tone you and your colleagues use to message each other during the day—then, match it.
- Or, when you’ve finished, reach out to a coworker you trust and ask them to read what you have. Ask them to be honest about how they’d feel receiving this message from a coworker they don’t know well. Would it raise their eyebrows?
Explain why you’re out of office (if you want to). Whether or not you reveal that you’re on maternity leave is totally your call. As long as you talk to your boss and have your maternity leave approved, you’re not required to explain why exactly you’ll be out. That said, a lot of people do choose to explain the reason for their absence (because it’s the cutest reason on the planet!). Open your email with a line like this:- Formal: “I’m currently taking my maternity leave and am away from my inbox.”
- Casual: “I’m sorry for missing your email, but I have a great excuse: I’m on maternity leave!”
Offer dates for when you’ll be back. For anyone who interacts with you professionally, knowing when you’ll be back is super helpful information. Next, give the specific dates of your maternity leave, from start to finish. That way, anyone who reaches out to you will have all the intel they need to pick up the conversation when you’re back at your desk.[2]- Formal: “I’ll be away from my desk for 28 weeks, from January 7th to July 7th."
- Casual: “I’ll be busy changing diapers and not sleeping for from October 30th, 2022-February 22nd, 2023.”
List relevant contacts to reach out to in your absence. Maybe you’ve arranged for people to handle some of your jobs and correspondences while you're away. If that’s the case, include them here. Or, you might ask that people only send messages that are urgent, and if they are, to mark them appropriately. Whatever you work out with your contacts should be reflected in your email.[3]- Formal: “In my absence, please contact Sherry Walsh ([email protected]) for Sales inquiries and Tom Lin ([email protected]) for recruiting updates.”
- Casual: “My amazing colleague Cyla Abdul (abdulcyla@wikihow) will be available to any address urgent matters (I promised her tons of cute baby photos in return).”
- It might make sense to show relevant colleagues your OOO email ahead of time, so everyone's on the same page.
Explain your boundaries and how contactable you’ll be. In all likelihood, this is something you’ll have discussed with your team or your boss. You might expect to be fully unplugged during your maternity leave (“I won’t be checking my emails.”), or you might decide that you’ll be checking periodically (“I’ll be going through my emails infrequently”). Or, you might ask that others follow another system to keep your inbox organized.[4]- Formal: “Please mark any/all time-sensitive messages as “URGENT” and include any relevant dates in the subject.”
- Casual: If you have something time-sensitive, email Tony. I’ve asked him just to pass along the really important stuff, so don’t forget to plead your case! ;)”
Tweak your automatic reply for in-house emails if you want. It might make sense to have a different message for external emails and internal emails. For example, if you know that your company would rather you have a formal public persona, you might tweak your tone for one, while keeping the funnier message internal. Or, you might decide that people on your team would benefit from other contacts at the company, while clients might not.Advertisement
Expert Q&A
References
- ↑ https://www.ionos.com/digitalguide/e-mail/technical-matters/maternity-leave-out-of-office-message/
- ↑ https://hiphoebe.com/how-to-write-you-maternity-leave-out-of-office-email/
- ↑ https://business.lovetoknow.com/business-communications-sample-letters/9-maternity-leave-out-office-messages-your-auto-reply
- ↑ https://www.ionos.com/digitalguide/e-mail/technical-matters/maternity-leave-out-of-office-message/
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