TL;DR As a very small bookkeeping firm, I have some mental hang ups about creating an Out Of Office (OOO) responder in my email. Does anyone else? “Officially”, I try to only do client work on MWF mornings, and not even all the MWFs. But, let’s be honest, I often work a little at 6:00am, too.
I think OOO messages are for those times when you dont want the pressure of responding to client emails. It has nothing to do with how often you are actually doing work. It's just a warning to your clients that they should not expect an immediate response from you. However, if a message comes through and you do decide to respond, you can start your message with "I am currently away from the office, but was quickly checking email. I wanted to address your concern/respond to your request/quickly provide clarification......We can discuss in better detail when I am back in the office". That's it. I think sometimes business owners feel guilty becauae they think if they are actually working, it's dishonest to have an OOO message. But if you have set office hours for client communication, your really just setting boundaries.
I think OOO messages are for those times when you dont want the pressure of responding to client emails. It has nothing to do with how often you are actually doing work. It's just a warning to your clients that they should not expect an immediate response from you. However, if a message comes through and you do decide to respond, you can start your message with "I am currently away from the office, but was quickly checking email. I wanted to address your concern/respond to your request/quickly provide clarification......We can discuss in better detail when I am back in the office". That's it. I think sometimes business owners feel guilty becauae they think if they are actually working, it's dishonest to have an OOO message. But if you have set office hours for client communication, your really just setting boundaries.