Winning the out of office reply

The first day of summer is days away (Summer Just passed), and if you have any upcoming vacation, it's time to brush up on crafting you're out-of-office email. Whether you keep it simple, or you plan on injecting humour into your OOO, it's good to have a plan. Some exemplary replies, including one with the subject line "nope" and a message that read, "I'm not planning on reading any old emails when I get back."

When you go on vacation, how do you handle being OOO? In an age when we are always connected and able to work anywhere remotely, it can be HARD to truly disconnect and take a true break. Yet, research has shown how valuable these breaks are for our mental health - as well as for our future Productivity and creativity. When we leave with our family for Vocations, instead of creating the usual OOO message that says "I'm out of the office with limited access to email" (because really, when is access to email ever actually limited anymore?!), just choose to say like "At the beach with my family - I'm trading in staring at my inbox for staring at palm trees and beach waves this week! I'll get back to you when I return."  And guess what will happen? So many people may respond to your message!  My be you can get restaurant recommendations, insider tips about the place you visited, and like simple messages of "enjoy your time with your little ones". We owe it to ourselves to truly disconnect a few times a year, and it is argued that if you lead a team, it is even more important, since your employees watch you to see how to approach vacation - if you set the standard that vacations are sacred and not to be interrupted - they'll feel comfortable.