How to Write an Out of Office Email

Going on vacation? Good!

Now set your automatic replies so you don’t have to worry about people trying to contact you when you’re recharging.

How to write an Out of Office Email:

Subject: “Name Out Of Office Jan 1-3”

Start with a greeting to your general audience,

Clearly state the dates that you are out of office, and how much communication you can allow. Maybe you’ll have a small window for meetings, or maybe you’ll only respond to urgent requests. Set limits and keep them.

Have a follow-up contact or information for ongoing projects that you may need to be part of, but won’t require your immediate attention. This is also helpful because it tells your audience that things are being handled, and this contact can also tell YOU if it’s actually urgent.

Thank them and sign off.


Example Vacation Responder:

Subject: GPSA VP-EDI Out of Office (Jan 3-9)

Hello Campus Partner!

I am Out of Office from Monday January 3rd to Sunday January 9th, and will not be responding to emails or meeting invitations.

If this is an urgent request, please contact our VP of Campus Affairs Dr. Person at Email.

Thank you!

Hema Kopalle


Example Role Transition Email:

Subject: Reminder: GPSA VP-EDI Role Transition (Jul 02-09)

Hello Campus Partner!

I'm Hema Kopalle, taking on the GPSA Vice President of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity role from Burgundy Fletcher. We are actively in transition, and appreciate your patience during this week.

Please don't hesitate to reach out for any questions, concerns, or introduction meetings.

Thank you for your service to our community, I look forward to working with you during the 2021-2022 year!

Much gratitude,

Hema Kopalle


Example Student OOO Email:

Hello!

I am Out of Office from Monday January 3rd to Sunday January 9th, and will not be responding to emails or meeting invitations.

If this is an urgent request, please contact me on Slack or re-send your message with the subject "Urgent". 

Thank you!

Hema


Example TA OOO Email:

Hello!

I am Out of Office from Friday October 8rd to Sunday October 10th, and will not be responding to emails or meeting invitations.

If this is an urgent research request, please contact me on Slack.

If you are a BILD 60 student with questions or concerns, please email Dr. Person at Email as I will be unable to respond to Midterm emails until after 7pm on Sunday October 10th.

Thank you!

Hema



Resources on Culturally Aware Mentorship

January 20, 2022

As I type this I’m listening to the conclusion of a SABER talk by Dr. Angela Byars-Winston. Her work is phenomenal, and I’m so inspired! I’m writing down resources as I hear them, and these two prompts that resonate with me:

  • The racial Healing book by Anneliese Singh

  • https://fairplaygame.org/about/

  • On Being Podcast - July 9, 2020 episode

  • Black, Brown, Bruised



 


Prompts:

  1. How have you managed not to know?

  2. What do you consistently give up?

Some Resources to Discuss EDI Asian American advocacy

In Fall 2021 I’m the Instructional Assistant (~TA) for the course “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion in Human Biology” at UC San Diego. I love this class and am grateful every day that I get to grow as an instructor in such a foundational, intersectional class.

My students write reflection journals every week to help engage with the material. In their first week a student of Asian American (AA) identify wrote that they were hoping to learn more about Asian American inequities and power since that population is often forgotten in the greater discussion. To grow up Asian American in the US is a very different experience in identity formation than growing up in the more culturally and racially homogenous country of your family’s homeland. This dissonance is not unique to first-generation Asian Americans, but it is the experience I can speak to, and so I sent the student the following email:

—

Hello [Student]!

In your entry for the BILD 60 Journal 1 assignment you'd mentioned wanting to learn more about Asian Americans and how they/we have been placed in an ambiguous space in the American narrative of racial dynamics and power.

I realize that's not actually what your said, but I've paraphrased because there's a LOT more nuance that can unfortunately be summed up as "Asian Americans sometimes get forgotten".

I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about the topic, as it's something that continues to drive my own EDI work in academia but I wanted to give you a starting point for your own journey, since we won't be covering it in class.

Jenn @reapproriate on Twitter is a very active interdisciplinary voice in the field, and has lots of good resources/commentary like this one.

This thread also references much of nuance of how the history of the Asian American movement towards equity can often be confounded and dismissed by scholars working in other contexts.

Most of the dynamic discourse seems to happen on Twitter, so here are a few other cool advocates to think about: @NeedhiBalla, @KimTallBear (not AA diaspora), Dr. Sengupta (@AnonDumboOctopi), @HarmitMalik, @AngryAsianMan, Dr. Tran (@but_im_kim_tran), @jchenwriter, @xiofei_lin, @ayushi_nayak.

It is helpful (at least to me) to remember that dismantling systemic racism requires an understanding that equity is not a zero-sum game. Framing Equity as a problem of resource scarcity (even attention!) only pits groups against each other instead of all groups against white supremacy. Dr. Holly Hare talks about it more in their dissertation.

Again, I could go on for ages about this, but I know you've got midterms and this is an ongoing conversation that takes years!

Cheers,

Hema

ps. A "fun" book/memoir is Good Talk, Thanks by Mira Jacob