Our office is currently closed for winter break. Please leave your name, number and a brief message after the tone, and I will return your call when normal business operations resume on Monday, ...

Before you type that out-of-office message, pause for a moment. Because you've been writing them all wrong. You've been oversharing, making promises you can't keep and you've been far too vague.

An out of office message is an essential tool for anyone who sends and receives a lot of email, since you can use it to keep contacts informed if you're unable to reply to messages, whether it's ...