exactly that

“I am on annual leave. My great team will be dealing with my emails while I'm off ensuring you get support from the right people to keep things moving.”

I vaguely remember getting told off for putting "in the highly unlikely case of needing me for anything urgent...." in mine once.  Was just being realistic. 

I don’t actually use an OOO. The joys of self employment. I just check my email at least once a day anywhere to triage. But I’m quite disciplined about not being on it constantly (I removed email from my phone - only on the computer now - I don’t do mobile email). 

@stru very sensible - I'm thinking of removing mine too.  Only seems to be a distraction/liability.  I have never sent an important email from my phone (or at least not one that I didn't then regret) and people will call if urgent.  I am quite disciplined about not checking so tempted to keep it just in case.

I was the sole member of my department in a small firm and used to stick on the usual out of office saying I won't have access to e-mails while I'm away and as long as people know in advance it was never a problem and nobody ever had to get in touch.  Never checked e-mails while I was away.

I remember the days when there was no way to contact people who were on holiday.

The best one I ever received simply said:

"I am out of the office."

I am away on holibobberies until XX/XX/XXXX.  Just tell me what you want me to do and I'll do it, don't panic.  Might take me a bit longer than usual as I'll have to factor in a trip to A&E to get the laptop extracted from my arse after Buzzette rams it up there. 

I keep people guessing by invariably forgetting to change the date and informing everyone that I'm out of the office until a Monday four months ago. 

Heh pancakes, I'm currently corresponding with someone from the council who works part time, so she does that every. Single. Week.

if you see headlines about a landowner throttling someone from the planning department, send me a cake in prison please!

Another good one was along the lines of 'I'm supposed to be on holiday, but no doubt I won't be able to resist looking at emails, so I might reply to you, or I might ignore you. If I ignore you I'll try to remember to get back to you when I return to the office."

One of the trainees in my intake used to change the voicemail on her phone every single day to state the date and whether she was in the office or was going to be out. Madness. 

(Leaving aside the fact that no one wanted to call the first seat banking trainee in an MC firm about anything important)

Stru - at a certain firm I worked at circa 2005, it was obligatory to change one's voicemail every day.

IIRC, Bristows used to do that too.

Heh @ "I am out of the office."

Given how rubbish the IT is, I might put one saying "I am in the office with limited access to emails."

Yeah I remember the changing voicemail every day thing being obligatory in the days before everyone had smartphones

Still change my voicemail on my non-working day of the week as people can just wait for me to get back the next day.

I have never checked my voicemail at work and never will.