How to Write an Out-of-Office Message That Protects Your Time Off

Most automatic replies are written to sound polite, and many quietly promise that you will keep working: “I will have limited access to email” tells every sender that you are still reading. An out of office message that protects your time off does the opposite. It tells people you are not reading, who can help them instead, and when you will answer.

A good out-of-office message has five parts:

1. Give your dates and say you are not reading email
2. Name a contact for each kind of request
3. Promise replies from the day after you return
4. Decide what happens to the mail itself
5. Keep the reason short, or leave it out

Filled in, the whole message might read: “I am on leave until Friday 14 August and am not reading email. For invoices, please contact Ana in accounts; for the website project, Sam; for anything else, our team mailbox. I will reply to anything that still needs me from Tuesday 18 August.” The names are illustrative; fuller templates follow below.

Time off is where work-life balance, the fit between your job and what else you value, is easiest to lose; this page covers the message that guards it.

Why a vague auto-reply keeps you working

A reply that hints you might check in invites people to test it, and every answer you send drags the job back into your break. Two strands of vacation research explain why that matters: what occupies your mind while you are away, and what is waiting when you get back. In a 2006 study of university employees in Germany, Charlotte Fritz and Sabine Sonnentag found that people who dwelt on the negative side of their job during vacation reported more exhaustion when they came back, and a heavy workload on return went with more exhaustion too.¹

The study

Limited evidence

Four surveys around one vacation at a German university

Fritz and Sonnentag surveyed 221 non-academic university employees, mostly women in clerical jobs, four times: a week before a vacation, during it, within two days of returning and two weeks later. Exhaustion fell during the break. Those who reported more negative thinking about their job while away were more exhausted on their return and two weeks later, even after allowing for how exhausted they were before. Everything was self-reportedself-report: A measure in which people describe their own behavior, feelings or circumstances, usually by answering a questionnaire. When the same person supplies both of the things being compared, shared habits of answering can make the link between them look stronger than it is.Full entry in the glossary by one workforce, so the result is an association, not cause and effect.¹

The study did not measure email. It measured how much people dwelt on what they disliked about their work, which a stray message can easily start. Picture day three of a week away: a colleague forwards a client complaint “just so you know”. You cannot act on it, but you can replay it for the rest of the trip, and that replaying is what the study tracked.¹

A Dutch team led by Jessica de Bloom found the lift from a winter sports trip had largely faded in the first week back at work, and proposed, without testing it, that work piling up while you are away adds “catch-up stress” that a covering colleague could prevent.² The guide to what a vacation can and cannot do for burnout explains why the relief fades.

The evidence is not one-sided. In a 2014 street survey of 374 international tourists visiting the Netherlands, those who did a little work on vacation, mostly no more than 15 minutes a day, reported no clear difference in emotions from those who did none.³ That measured mood during the trip, not how rested people were afterward. A short, planned check may cost little; an inbox that can reach you at any moment is a different break.

What to say in an out of office message

A useful out-of-office message answers the three questions every sender has: are you reading this, who can help me now, and when will I hear from you. Each part below takes a sentence or two, so the whole message fits on a phone screen.

1. Your dates: the first and last day you are away
2. Not reading: a plain line that you are not reading email, with no "limited access"
3. A contact per topic: a named person or team mailbox for each kind of request, agreed before you leave
4. A reply date: one working day after you return, so the first morning back is for catching up
5. The mail itself: keep it, ask senders to resend after a date, or, where your employer allows it, delete it automatically as Daimler offered staff in Germany in 2014

1. Give your dates and say you are not reading email

State the first and last day you are away and say, without softening, that you are not reading email. “Limited access” and “checking occasionally” sound considerate, but they turn every sender into someone who might reasonably expect a reply.

A client who reads “I’ll be checking email intermittently” and hears nothing for two days may feel ignored; one who reads “I am not reading email until 17 August” knows to go elsewhere.

Myth

Saying you will check email now and then is the more professional option.

Fact

It sets an expectation you then have to meet on your break. A clear 'not reading' line, with a named contact, gives senders a better route.

2. Name a contact for each kind of request

A single “contact my colleague” line pushes everything to one person, who then forwards half of it back to you. Split the handover by topic instead: invoices to one person, a named project to another, everything else to a team mailbox. Agree each name with the person before you leave, and give them your handover note.

It protects colleagues too: a contact who knows what they cover can answer instead of forwarding.

3. Promise replies from the day after you return

Give a reply date one working day after your return, not the return day itself. Your first morning back goes on meetings, catching up and the messages your contacts could not settle, and a promise to answer everything that day is one you will break by lunchtime.

This is a WiserHours suggestion, not a tested rule: the buffer costs senders one day and gives you a day to sort what still needs you.

4. Decide what happens to the mail itself

Two options can shrink the pile before you see it. The first is to ask senders to resend anything still relevant after your return date, so you can archive the backlog with less guilt. The second is automatic deletion. In 2014, carmaker Daimler said about 100,000 of its employees in Germany could choose a “Mail on Holiday” assistant that deleted incoming email during leave and told senders to contact a named substitute.⁴

Our employees should relax on holiday and not read work-related emails.

Deleting mail is a choice for your employer as well as you, because some messages may need to be kept. Ask first, and if you use either option, say so clearly in the reply so nobody assumes you have their message.

5. Keep the reason short, or leave it out

You do not have to say why you are out of office. “I am out of the office until Monday” is complete. A short reason, such as “on leave” or “at a conference”, can help senders judge how reachable you are, but leave out health and family details. Microsoft’s Outlook help warns that once you send replies outside your organization, they go to every email you receive, including newsletters, advertising and possibly junk.⁵ The same caution applies to your phone number and to precise travel plans.

Out-of-office message templates to copy

Each template follows the five parts. Swap each bracketed placeholder for your own details, cut any line that does not fit, and read the result as a stranger would.

Vacation

“Thank you for your email. I am on leave from [first day] to [last day] and am not reading email. For [topic one], please contact [name] at [address]. For [topic two], contact [name] at [address]. For anything else, write to [team mailbox]. I will reply to anything that still needs me from [return day plus one].”

Sick leave

“I am out of the office and not reading email at the moment. For [topic], please contact [name] at [address], and for anything else, [team mailbox]. I will reply when I am back.” If you are too unwell to set it up, ask your manager or a colleague to do it; the reply needs no return date or detail, though your employer’s sickness reporting rules still apply.

Parental leave

“I am on parental leave until [month] and am not reading this inbox. [Name] is covering my work and can be reached at [address]. Messages here will not be forwarded, so please resend anything still relevant to me after [return date].”

A holiday period or office closure

“Our office is closed from [date] to [date], and I am not reading email. If something cannot wait, [the route that is actually staffed, such as an emergency line]. I will reply from [first working day plus one].”

A short absence

“I am out of the office today at [a training course or conference] and will reply [tomorrow morning]. For anything urgent today, please contact [name] at [address].”

Automatic deletion, if your employer allows it

“I am on leave until [date], and messages to this address are not being kept. Please contact [name] at [address] for [topic], or send your email again after [date].”

How to set up an out-of-office reply in Outlook and Gmail

Outlook and Gmail both have a built-in automatic reply with a start and end date, and both can limit replies to your contacts.⁵⁶ Fill in the end date as well as the start, so the reply switches itself off and does not tell people you are still away once you are back.

Microsoft’s help page gives the route in the new Outlook for Windows as View, View settings, Accounts, Automatic replies; in Outlook on the web it is Settings, Account, Automatic replies, and in classic Outlook, File, Automatic Replies. Work and school accounts can set a different message for people inside and outside the organization, and the reply goes once to each sender during your absence.⁵

In Gmail on a computer, Google’s help page puts the setting under Settings, See all settings, then the General tab’s “Vacation responder”, where you add the date range, subject and message, and can choose to reply only to your contacts. Gmail usually replies to a sender only the first time, and again if they write after four days or you edit the reply.⁶

On a work or school Google Calendar account, an “Out of office” event automatically declines meetings during that time, with a decline message you can edit.⁷

Before you leave: a short pre-leave routine

The message works only if the people it names are ready and nothing else pulls you back. Set it up the day before you leave and test it by emailing yourself from a personal address.

The handover note is the easiest part to skip. For each open piece of work, write one line on where it stands, what might come up and who decides. Then remove the other routes back in: decline meetings during your leave, and turn off work notifications on your phone, or sign out of work apps for the duration. If you need a fixed check-in, agree one short time with your manager and keep to it. The same idea works on ordinary weeknights: letting go of work thoughts in the evening uses similar habits.

Before you switch on the reply

• Contacts agreed for each topic, with a handover note each
• Reply written with dates, a not-reading line and a reply date
• Start and end dates set so the reply turns itself off
• Test email sent from a personal address
• Calendar blocked and meetings in the leave period declined
• Work notifications off or work apps signed out on the phone
• Any agreed check-in time written down, and nothing beyond it

If your manager is the one who keeps writing, the message alone will not hold; setting boundaries with your boss covers that conversation.

Where the law backs your out-of-office reply

In a handful of countries the law now limits how far work can reach into time off, so a firm out-of-office message can have legal support as well as common sense behind it. These three are examples, not a survey; what applies to you turns on where you work, your industry and your terms of employment.

• France: according to the occupational safety institute INRS, a 2016 change to the labor code made the right to disconnect a compulsory subject of bargaining at employers with union representatives; if those talks end without an agreement, the employer must issue a charter instead.⁸
• Portugal: since January 2022, the labor code, as amended by Law 83/2021, has required employers not to contact staff during their rest time, with an exception only for force majeure.⁹
• Australia: the Fair Work Commission says that since August 2024 (August 2025 at small businesses), employees in the national workplace system may decline to monitor, read or reply to work contact outside their hours, unless declining is unreasonable.¹⁰

Even where such a rule applies, clients and outside contacts can still write, so the reply still has to tell them where to go. Elsewhere, look up your government’s employment or labor department, then check your employment contract, any union or collective agreement, and company policy.

The bottom line

Write the reply that lets you stop reading: your dates, a plain “not reading email”, a named contact for each kind of request and a reply date one working day after you return. Agree those contacts before you go and leave each of them a handover note.