How do you set up out of office on Gmail?

Only 13 days ‘til Christmas! The festive season is in full swing. Evenings and weekends are jam-packed with Christmas festivities - parties, meals, carols and pantomimes - and it is a time to catch up with family and friends. Very exciting, but on top of work, it can feel exhausting!

For many, wrapping up work for Christmas feels like a prolonged sprint to the finish line. Furiously working away like Santa’s elves, many of us try to get all of our work neatly tied up like a present bow before settling in for the holidays. However, despite our best efforts, that isn’t always possible. Some lines of work never sleep and life throws curve balls.

Perhaps you are someone who finds it difficult to shut off from work? Maybe you are a self confessed workaholic, are too conscientious for your own good or find it difficult to relinquish control and hand over to colleagues? Sound familiar? Yes…but! This year, this year you have decided it is going to be different!

You have booked some time off and have made a pledge to yourself to have a complete break from work. That means putting the out-of-office on…and leaving it on! If this is an alien concept to you or you are new to the world of work, an out of office is an automated email response to any messages you receive in your inbox whilst you are away.

An out-of-office informs your clients, customers, colleagues and contacts that you are taking a well deserved break. You author the message, so you can provide them with the contact details of colleagues who will be covering your role in your absence and who to get in touch with in case of emergency.

This way people know you are not ignoring them. Plus, if anything is to go wrong, no one is wasting critical time waiting on a response you cannot give. Your high levels of customer service are preserved! You can specify how long your out-of-office is in action for. Away for 2 weeks, set the dates to cover your holiday.

We also appreciate that not all out of office replies are set for merry occasions. They can be used when you are unwell, on compassionate leave, or perhaps have been called up for jury service. For these scenarios, there is the ability to set up an automated response for an indeterminate period. This way you can completely park work emails without having to worry about ‘topping up’ your out of office period.

How to set up your out of office reply

• Go to your Gmail account.
• Click the cog icon ‘Settings’ in the top right hand corner.  
• Select ‘See all settings.’
• Scroll down the list of options until you see the 'Out-of-Office AutoReply'.
• Select the option ‘Out of Office AutoReply on.’
• Fill in the various fields:
• Specify the date range you are away for. If it is indeterminate, leave the ‘Last day’ box unchecked.
• Enter a subject title: From the professional ‘Thank you for understanding’ to the jovial ‘Busy munching mince pies.’ 
• Compose a message - an opportunity to provide the contact details of the colleagues who may be covering you in your absence or who to turn to in case of emergency. 
• There is the option to only send your Out of Office reply to existing contacts. If that is applicable, tick the box ‘Only send a response to people in my Contacts’ under the message box.
• Scroll to the bottom of the page and hit ‘Save Changes.’

If you have already created a signature for your Gmail account, this will automatically feature at the bottom of your out of office reply; you don’t have to manually add it.

How to turn off your out of office reply

When setting up your out of office reply, if you specified a ‘Last day’ your autoreply shall cease to send once that day is complete. However, if you set up an out of office reply for an indeterminate period, you will need to end it manually. This is very simple to do.

When your out of office autoreply is on, a pale yellow banner will feature at the top of your inbox screen, sporting the subject line of your out of office response.

• Go to the out of office banner at the top of your screen.
• Press ‘End now.’

Extra Tip

If you can’t access emails outside of the work building, then it is easy to shut off because you can’t do much about it! But if you struggle shutting off from work and you work from home or have access to work emails on your personal phone, it will involve exercising some discipline and resisting the temptation to have a little look. 

For all you iPhone or Mac users, Apple have created a handy feature on their devices called Focus Modes (there will be an equivalent for Android). Focus Modes allow you to block or reduce the notifications from certain apps when you are doing particular tasks. Why not set up a holiday mode? Learn what Focus Modes are and how they work here: How to use Do Not Disturb and Focus modes on your iPhone and Mac