Table of Contents

L&D-style Out Of Office Messages

Learning can happen at any moment. Why not share a little learning in your Out Of Office automated messages when you take some vacation time this summer?

As the calendar turns to July and the country opens up to tourism and travel once again, it seems to be vacation season. If you’re planning to take some time off and want to bring a little something extra to your out of office replies, try adding any of the following to your out of office messages (and then see if anyone is paying attention to your automated responses)!

The Out Of Office (OOO) Message with a Fun Fact (that’s totally not true):

Thank you for your message. I’ll be out of the office until… In the meantime, did you know that the average human attention span has shrunk to just 8 seconds? That’s shorter than the attention span of a goldfish. Wait, are you still reading this? Ok, I guess that “fact” isn’t actually true (although it’s an oft-quoted statistic). I’m excited to respond to your message when I return, and we can work together on any of your training needs, including ways to spot false data from real, important data that can impact our work!

The OOO that Helps Improve PowerPoint Presentations

Thank you for your message. I’ll be out of the office until… Before you move on to your next email message, did you know that there are approximately 35 million PowerPoint presentations given each day? Actually, I don’t know how accurate that statistic is (but I lifted it from this PollEverywhere infographic). My point is that there are a lot of PowerPoint presentations given, and they’re given all the time. If you want to improve the look and feel of your next presentation to help it stand out a bit more, you may want to check out these five tips! Good luck, and if you need more help with your next presentation, drop me a line (although you’ll have to forgive me for not responding right away, I’m trying to enjoy my vacation!).

The OOO with Storyline Tips (if many of your emailers also work in Storyline) – this one was contributed by my colleague Lindsay Garcia:

Thank you for your message. I’ll be out of the office until… For those of you who work in Storyline, did you know that the Storyline timeline is practically an all-in-one tool when creating courses? It’s become my best friend! Some of my go-to actions you can easily do via the timeline:

  • Preview a slide
  • Select multiple objects at once (and then group them)
  • Label objects and groups for easier animation and trigger actions
  • Hide, lock and unlock objects
  • Use the player head to insert objects and cue points right where you want them and to align objects seamlessly
  • Adjust the time an object (and the overall slide) display

If you have some shortcuts or tips on Storyline, I’d love to hear about them. But not until after I’m back. Because I’m focused on not checking my email while I’m out!

The OOO to Help with Writing Skills – contributed by my colleague Heather Snyder

Thank you for your message. I’ll be out of the office until… Since we’re in the world of email (and the whole artform of written communication), I’ll leave you with some advice until I’m back in the office: When you’re writing, be sure to use the active voice. According to Grammarly, active voice is more direct and sets a strong tone while passive voice is subtler and weaker in your messaging. For example: Replace a sentence such as “This email was read by my colleagues” with “My colleagues read this email.”

The OOO with a Prize

Thank you for your message. I’ll be out of the office until… If you’re still reading this, I’d like to reward you! If you’re the first person who can tell me how many of the letter “t” you find in this message, I’ll give you a $5 Starbucks giftcard when I return.

Ok, this last one may have moved away from an L&D-style OOO message, but at the end of the day, who wouldn’t want a little joy in their life by discovering an unexpected note in an otherwise mundane element of our working lives?

If you’re taking a trip this summer, I hope you have a safe and amazing time, I hope you recharge your batteries and I’m looking forward to sharing more L&D ideas all summer long.

Articles Similar to L&D-style Out Of Office Messages

Microlearning Basics

Did you know there are at least 6 different types of microlearning? In today’s podcast, Karl Kapp and Robyn Defelice (authors of Microlearning Short and Sweet) go in depth about what microlearning is and what you should know before you get started.

overwhelming elearning
Articulate Storyline
Jessica Jagielski

Creating Learning Pathways in Elearning

Have you ever taken an elearning course and thought: Hmmmm, this may be helpful for some of my colleagues, but this really isn’t covering stuff that will help with my

Subscribe to Get Updates from Endurance Learning

Brian Washburn, Author

Brian Washburn
CEO & Chief Ideas Guy

Enter your information below and we’ll send you the latest updates from our blog. Thanks for following!

activities cookbook

Download the Training Activity Cookbook

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the Endurance Learning Activity Cookbook.

Download the What's Possible in L&D Worksheet

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the What’s Possible in L&D Worksheet.

What's possible in L&D

Let's Talk Training!

Brian Washburn

Brian Washburn
CEO & Chief Ideas Guy

Enter your information below and we’ll get back to you soon.

Download the Feedback Lesson Plan

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the lesson plan as a PDF.

feedback lesson plan
MS Word Job Aid Template

Download the Microsoft Word Job Aid Template

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the Word version of this template.

Download the Free Lesson Plan Template!

Enter your email below and we’ll send you a Word document that you can start using today!

free lesson plan template
training materials checklist

Download the Training Materials Checklist

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the Training Materials Checklist.

Subscribe to Endurance Learning for updates

Get regular updates from the Endurance Learning team.