When answering the phone at a company, there are times when a call comes to an employee who has already gone home.

In this case, you may be at a loss as to whether or not you should tell the other person that the person in charge is returning home, and how to tell them.

Therefore, in this article, we will explain the correct phone response when the person in charge has already returned home.

Let’s also check the expressions that are easy to misunderstand and the points when telling the other person that you have returned home.

What is the appropriate telephone response when the person in charge is at home?

In conclusion, there is no problem in telling the person on the phone that the person in charge is going home.

Here are some phrases you can use to tell someone over the phone that your representative is going home.

“I apologize for today.”

“Ritsu” has the meaning of “going away”, so by saying “I’m sorry for today”, you can make the other party understand that the person in charge has already gone home.

In actual telephone correspondence, there is no problem if you say, “This is ○○ (name of person in charge). Please excuse me for today.”

“I have already left work today.”

“Take off” means the end of working hours for the day and the end of attendance.

For this reason, by telling the other party that you have already left work today, you can make them understand that you will not be returning to work today, but will return to work the next business day.

It’s safer to avoid calling “leaving work” when you come home

In some cases, the person in charge leaves the company and returns home as “leave the company”, but it is safer to avoid using it as it may be misunderstood by the other party.

As I introduced earlier, it is recommended to use expressions such as “I am sorry for today” and “I have already left work today”.

There is a risk of being mistaken for “retirement”

So why shouldn’t we use the term “leaving” when employees return home?

This is because it may be misunderstood as “retirement” when an employee quits the company .

Even if you intend to convey that the employee has already returned home, there is a risk that the other party will understand that the employee has left the office and will not return to work, so care must be taken with the expression.

Adding “Today” prevents misunderstandings

When using “leave” to mean that the employee has returned home, adding “today” will reduce the possibility of misunderstanding that the employee has retired.

Compare the two sentences below.

A sentence with an X can be interpreted as saying that the employee has left the company as of today.

However, we can see that the ○ sentence has the implication that the employee has already returned home and will return to work after the next business day.

When using “leave the office” when answering the phone, use the particle “today” to avoid misunderstandings.

[Words similar to “leaving”] Explanation of each difference

You need to be careful when using the word “leaving” on the phone, but it’s also important to remember how to use similar words.

Below is a list of words similar to “retirement” that are often used at companies, so please refer to them.

retirement

It means quitting your job. You can prove it for both your company’s convenience and the company’s convenience.

resignation

It is often used synonymously with retirement as it literally means leaving the job.

resignation

It means that the employee quits the job voluntarily. Therefore, resignation for company reasons is not called “resignation”.

leaving work

As I mentioned a little earlier, it means that the person’s attendance is over when the working hours are over.

Returning to work

It means that employees return to the company from business trips, outings, etc.

As with returning home, some people may misunderstand the meaning of the word “return”, so be careful.

going home

It means going home.

Even in business, we sometimes use the expression “employees have gone home”, but they don’t always go straight home.

Even though I told the caller that I was home, I still run into them on the street.

Therefore, it is safer to avoid the expression “I came home” when answering the phone at work.

What is the point of answering the phone when the person in charge returns home?

Here are three effective points for telling the person in charge that the person in charge has returned home when answering the phone.

respond as much as possible

Even if the call is addressed to the person in charge who has gone home, work together as a team to respond.

You don’t have to force yourself to do something that only the person in charge can do, but you should provide as much support as you can.

If you are unable to make a decision on your own, respond appropriately by asking for instructions from your supervisor, etc.

Let the person in charge know when it will be available

Let the other person feel at ease by telling them when the person in charge will return to work.

for example

• “○○ (name of the person in charge) will be at work from the next business day.”
• “I’m sorry, but ○○ (the name of the person in charge) is on vacation and will come to work at the beginning of next week.”

and so on.

[With example sentences] Expressions that can be used when you want to hide the fact that you have returned home

If you do not want the caller to know that the employee has returned home, we recommend that you respond by saying, “○○ (person in charge) is currently out of the office and will not be returning to work today.” .

It’s important to be polite in your language.

summary

If a call comes to an employee who has already gone home, there is no problem in telling the other party.

However, it is necessary to be careful with the expression so as not to cause misunderstanding.

It is also important to respond to the extent that you can instead of the person in charge, and to tell the other person when the person in charge will be able to respond.

If you want to reduce the burden of answering phone calls, we recommend using NEC Networks & System Integration’s Canario.

AI automatically transfers to the person in charge, which leads to a reduction in human man-hours. If the person in charge is absent or unable to respond, it is a good idea to make good use of the function to transfer the incoming call to another number.