If you’re expecting a baby, it can feel like your to-do list is limitless. If you’re a working mom, in addition to prepping the home front for your little one, you’ve got a laundry list of to-dos to ensure things run smoothly while you’re away from work on maternity leave. An easy but critical task on that to-do list? Crafting a maternity leave out-of-office message. Here are all my time-tested tips for writing an out-of-office message, inspired by my experience working in corporate America.

Why You Need a Maternity Leave Out of Office Message

When you’re on maternity leave, the last thing you want is someone badgering you about work to-dos when you’re trying to figure out breastfeeding or taking a precious mid-day snooze. 

Crafting a clear maternity leave out-of-office message is essential to ensuring that everyone is well taken care of at work so that you can focus on taking care of your new baby (and yourself!).. It also helps ensure that work can continue in your absence, leaving you less of a mess upon your return. 

What to Include in Your Mat Leave Email Message

Return to Work Date after Your Leave (or a General Estimate):

Provide a return date for when you’ll be back. This gives your contacts a timeline and helps set their expectations for your return so they know you’re not just away for a long weekend or 10-day vacation. 

You can provide a general estimate if you don’t have an exact date yet. This can work well even if you have an exact date in mind– after all, the odds of you actually replying to all those emails on your first day back is nearly zilch! 

Key Contacts and Resources

Try to include multiple points of contact and supporting resources so people can still move forward with their work in your absence. For some, this is one point of contact who is covering your maternity leave. Others may need to list multiple points of contact for different job tasks or frequent requests. Don’t forget to include the contact details for easy access! 

In addition to the names of colleagues, consider including a list of helpful resources. For example, if there’s a Slack channel someone can go to for their questions, a manual you can send people to, or an internal website with FAQs. 

If no supporting resources are available related to frequently asked questions or job duties, you may consider creating one before you leave. Not only will this help whoever is covering in your stead, but it will be a valuable resource for your colleagues and clients and can earn you some brownie points with your boss. 

Expectation Setting for When You’re on Maternity Leave: 

Clearly state whether or not you’ll be checking emails during your leave. 

If you plan to check emails occasionally, give them an estimate of frequency (e.g., once a month) so they have a reasonable estimate of your response time. You could also create a system to flag your most important emails, asking senders to resend with a flag at the beginning of the subject line (e.g., URGENT or CONFERENCE PLANNING). 

Pro tip: Under promise, over deliver. Especially if this is your first time having a baby, it might be challenging to imagine how long it will take you to feel ready (much less interested!) to check in on your work. When I first had my baby, I imagined I’d be taking coaching calls within 4-6 weeks… and boy was I wrong! So, I suggest you promise to check in less often than planned. 

Specific Details for an Internal vs. External Audience: 

All major email senders, including Outlook and Gmail, allow you to decide whether your auto-reply will go only to those within your organization, people saved in your contacts, or all senders (including external senders). Unfortunately, at this time, there’s no simple way to set up a different email to send to your coworkers vs. external contacts… which is very unfortunate because many of us want to give a different set of details and information to those within our organization vs. outside of it. If this is your case, you’ve got a few options:

• The most simple option is to simply have a section within your email for internal coworkers vs. everyone else.
• Alternatively, you can set up templates with filtering rules to automate a different reply for an internal or external audience. People have successfully done this with both Outlook and Gmail.

One Thing NOT to Include in Your Mat Leave Auto Responder

Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

Your personal contact information and cell phone number

I strongly recommend you do not include your personal contact information. Not only will this imply a level of responsiveness you may not be able to meet, but you’re setting yourself for a tricky situation down the line. After all, do you really want that client or coworker who deems their tiny crises more important than your time away from work with your newborn to have your cell phone number?? Probably not.  

Instead, give your contact information to your manager and possibly one other point of contact at work and let them be the funnel for anything that truly needs your attention. 

How Much Should You Disclose About Your Pregnancy & Maternity Leave?

One big decision is whether or not you’ll disclose why you’re gone– the fact that you’re having a baby (or welcoming one into your home). 

In addition to considerations around privacy and how comfortable you are with sharing details about your personal life at work, there’s a darker side to this question many don’t consider:

Gender-based discrimination and bias against women and working moms. 

Ample research proves that working mothers face disadvantages and unconscious biases in the workplace compared to fathers or childless women. Often called the Motherhood Penalty, this bias can impact working mom’s pay, performance evaluations, and perceptions of competence and performance. 

As much as I hate that we have to discuss this topic nearly a quarter of the way through the 21st century, it’s worth considering carefully. 

Situations where discussing maternity leave may be especially fraught

While bias against women and working moms is present everywhere, there are some jobs and fields where it is especially present. It is well proven that women face increased harassment and discrimination when they’re working in male-dominated workplaces. Given this, I would advise anyone who works in a field where most of the employees are men to consider using ambitious terms that avoid mentioning motherhood in their maternity leave out-of-office email. 

Additionally, some fields, including the arts and entertainment, finance, tech, and healthcare, have significantly higher rates of gender pay gaps than others. Moms working in these fields may also wish to avoid discussing the details of their leave and opt for more vague language. 

Tips for Female Leaders and Executives on Maternity Leave

If you’re a leader within your organization, you have a multi-layered decision to make when it comes to how you communicate your maternity leave. You need to consider the ramifications for not only yourself but also your team, as your behavior may set the tone for other soon-to-be parents on your team.

If supporting an environment that supports women and families is important to you, I suggest that in your internal communications, you explicitly state you’re leaving on maternity leave and try to lean towards as much detachment as possible, as future employees will remember the precedent you set and may feel pressured to follow your example. 

In contrast, feel free to use more ambiguous language for external contacts, opting for language such as “extended leave” instead of maternity leave.

Example Emails Templates for Maternity Leave

Example 1: Internal, Total Disconnection, Using “Maternity Leave”

Hi Team,

I’m currently on maternity leave and will return on [Date]. During this time, I will not be checking emails. For any urgent matters, please contact [Colleague’s Name] at [Email Address], who will cover my job duties while I’m gone.

Other Resources:

Below is a list of other helpful resources you can reference during my absence. 

• Xyz
• Xyz
• xyz

Cheers,

[Your Name]

Example 2: External, Occasional Check-In, General Langauge

Hello,

Thank you for your email. I’m currently on leave and will return on [Date]. 

If your matter is urgent, please contact [Colleague’s Name] at [Email Address] for immediate assistance.

I expect to check emails once a month and will prioritize responding to messages related to [topic]. If you have a non-urgent message related to this topic, please resend your email with [TOPIC] at the beginning of the subject line. 

If you have other questions about [TOPIC], please reference this reference guide: [link]

Best regards,

[Your Name]

Tips for Your Maternity Leave Message

1. Write It Earlier Than You Think You Need To: Draft your out-of-office message well in advance. This will help reduce the last-minute shuffle and help you be prepared should your little one make an unexpected, early arrival! (Did you the week before your due date is actually the most likely time you’ll give birth?)
2. Consider Other Communication Methods: Don’t forget about other frequently used communication tools like Slack, internal websites, group messages, etc. 
   1. Pro tip:  On messaging apps such as Slack, you can change your display name to something like “Lydia: OOO till [Date]” to clearly communicate that you’ll be out of the office and unavailable to respond to theri message. 
3. Calendar Blocks: Set a calendar block that auto-declines new meeting invitations during your leave. This will help reduce the possibility of colleagues booking a meeting and being surprised by your absence. 
4. Physical Reminders: If you work in an office, consider placing a note on your desk to inform anyone who might stop by that you’re out on maternity leave and who to contact in your place. 

Conclusion

Creating a thoughtful and helpful maternity leave out-of-office email auto responder is a simple but powerful tool to help you excel in the workplace while also taking time away to focus on your growing family. Setting clear expectations and providing necessary resources during your absence is a great way to ensure your team can continue to thrive in your absence—and it reduces the load upon your return! 

If you’d like support transitioning into the ranks of working moms, you may benefit from Matresence-informed career and burnout coaching. Balancing a big, demanding job with little kids is no small feat, which is why I specialize in supporting women who want to create a thriving career that supports their personal lives. Book a free consultation today if you’d like to learn more about how evidence-based coaching can help you thrive at work and home.

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