“I am on paternity leave from [x] until [y], a period of seven weeks. During this time my emails are not monitored, and when I return on [date] I will delete all unread emails. If your email is important, please get in touch after [date] or contact [my colleague].”
I promised my boss, in front of the other directors, that I would personally call and apologise to any customer or anyone else outside the business who took issue with my Out of Office message. Guess how many people I had to call?
This came to mind because I just found out he’s left “to seek opportunities elsewhere” after half a dozen people accused him (accurately) of being a bully. His golden handshake, for being a bully, is approximately twice what my annual salary was when I worked for him. Life’s a bitch, but at least I didn’t check my emails for seven weeks.