Out of Office Email Templates: 4 Examples Ready to Copy

Short answer: a good out of office email says three things: until when you are away, who to contact in the meantime, and when you will reply. It never has to say why you are away. Below are four templates you can copy with one click (classic professional, full handover, friendly, short and private), plus how to switch them on in Gmail and Outlook so they turn themselves off on your return date.

The out of office email is the last thing standing between you and your holiday, which is exactly why most of them are written in ninety seconds, at 6pm, with the suitcase already by the door. The result is either a bare "I'm away" that leaves senders stranded, or an oversharing novel nobody asked for. This guide gives you four out of office email templates in different tones, each one copy-ready, and the few rules that separate a useful auto-reply from an awkward one.

What to say, and what to leave out

A good auto-reply answers the sender's only real question: "what happens to my email now?". So it needs your return date, an alternative contact for things that cannot wait, and a promise about when you will reply. That's it. What it should not include: the reason for your absence (a holiday, a sick day or family leave is nobody's business, and health details are personal data), your personal phone number (that defeats the purpose), or apologies (being away is normal; plan for it instead with a proper leave plan so the handover exists before the auto-reply does). Keep it under a hundred words and write the return date in full, "Monday 12 May" beats "12/05" across countries.

Template 1: the classic professional

The default for client-facing inboxes: polite, complete, zero personality risk. It works for a week of holiday as well as for a long weekend.

Hello,

Thank you for your email. I am out of the office until [return date], with limited access to my inbox.

For urgent matters, please contact [colleague's name] at [email address]. Otherwise, I will reply to your message as soon as possible after my return.

Best regards,
[Your name]

Template 2: the full handover, for longer leave

For two weeks or more, one alternative contact is not enough: senders with different problems need different doors. Route them by topic and nobody has to wait for your return, which is the difference between coming back to a hundred emails and coming back to a crisis.

Hello,

I am on leave until [return date] and will not be reading email during this time.

So that nothing has to wait for me:
- For anything related to [project or account], contact [name] at [email address]
- For invoices and administrative matters, contact [name] at [email address]
- For everything else, [name] at [email address] can point you in the right direction

I will pick up the remaining messages when I am back.

Kind regards,
[Your name]

Template 3: the friendly one

For teams and long-standing contacts where a human tone is the house style. Warm is fine; just keep the three essentials in place, because charm does not answer "who handles my contract this week?".

Hi!

I'm taking some well-earned time off and will be back on [return date]. Until then, my inbox is on holiday too.

If it can wait, I'll get back to you as soon as I return. If it can't, [colleague's name] ([email address]) is the person to talk to.

Talk soon,
[Your name]

Template 4: short and private

The minimalist option, and the safest one: no reason, no destination, no personal numbers. Auto-replies go to everyone who writes to you, including strangers, mailing lists and the occasional scammer, so a message that gives away nothing but a return date is a feature, not laziness.

Hello,

I am away until [return date] and will reply when I am back.

For urgent requests: [email address].

Thank you,
[Your name]

How to switch it on in Gmail and Outlook

In Gmail, go to Settings, then "See all settings", and scroll to Vacation responder: set the first and last day, paste the subject and the message, and optionally restrict the reply to people in your contacts. In Outlook, it's Settings, then Account, then Automatic replies: turn them on, set the time range, and write two versions if you want, one for colleagues inside the organization and one for the outside world (a good place to use the handover template internally and the short one externally). In both cases, set the end date: the auto-reply switches itself off on your return and you will never be that person whose "back on Monday" runs until Thursday.

The auto-reply is for outsiders; your team deserves better

An out of office email tells strangers you are away. It is a terrible tool for the people you work with every day: your team should not discover your absence by emailing you. That visibility problem is what a leave tracker solves. With Bueggio HR, booked time off lands on a shared wall chart everyone can read, approved leave syncs to Google Calendar and Outlook so meeting organizers see it before they hit send, and if you connect Slack it sets a generic "out of office" status with your return date automatically and clears it when you are back, never revealing the type of absence. The auto-reply becomes the last step of a process instead of the only one. If your team still tracks who is away in a spreadsheet or a chat thread, our guides on how to track vacation time and leave management software cover the upgrade, which costs €1.30 per user per month with the first month free, no card required.

Frequently asked questions

What should an out of office message include?

Three things: the date you will be back, who to contact while you are away (with their email address) and what will happen to the message, usually that you will reply after your return. Everything else is optional. Keep it under a hundred words: the sender only needs to know their email did not fall into a void.

Should I say why I am away?

No, and in most cases you should not. The reason for an absence is personal information: nobody outside your team needs to know whether you are on holiday, on sick leave or on parental leave, and under European privacy rules health-related details deserve extra care. A neutral "I am out of the office until [date]" is complete, professional and safe.

Do I need an auto-reply for a single day off?

Yes, it is worth it even for one day. A same-day reply expectation is real in most inboxes, and a two-line auto-reply with your return date costs nothing to set up. Both Gmail and Outlook let you schedule an end date, so the message switches itself off when you are back and you cannot forget it on.

The bottom line

Pick the template that matches your inbox, swap the placeholders, set an end date and go: the whole job takes two minutes. And if writing the auto-reply is the only part of taking time off that your company has a process for, that is the real finding of this article. Bueggio HR handles the rest (requests, approvals, the wall chart, calendars and Slack) so the out of office email is genuinely the last thing you do before leaving. Try it free for a month.