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I usually pick a phone that addresses to my collogues who is not in the office for 5 or 10 mins. They probably go to the other departments and will come back soon. I usually tell that "He is out of the office and will be back soon". The callers sometimes misunderstood. So, they ask me "Is he on annual leave?".

Could someone please tell me what is the best way to say in that situation?

Thanks

Ryan Mai
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    Say he's away from his desk for a few minutes. – Robusto Oct 21 '15 at 15:02
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    Using "soon" might be very misleading. That's why you are questioned again. You can just replace it with "a few/5/10 minutes". –  Oct 21 '15 at 15:08
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    "Out of the office" usually implies "Out of the building for quite a long time (either on leave, or working somewhere else through special arrangement). " e.g. "He's out of the office (for a week, he's on holiday)" or "He's out of the office tomorrow but you can reach him by email". That's might be a misleading phrase to use. Robusto's suggestion deals with that, – lessthanideal Oct 21 '15 at 15:40
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    He's not at his desk at the moment. He stepped out for a moment. He will return shortly. – michael_timofeev Oct 21 '15 at 15:42
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    @lessthanideal When using "He is (stepped) out of the office", it doesn't necessarily mean he is out of the building, especially for someone who has his own office. "He is away from his desk" also can mean he is out of the building. Nobody knows. –  Oct 21 '15 at 15:46
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    @Rathony You're quite correct especially if you include the word "stepped" which implies for a short time. My point was that sometimes it does mean that, especially in certain business contexts. (I suppose by saying "usually" I revealed my own business context.) For example consider "Out of office" emails and the context they'd be used in a lot of companies. People asking "Is he on annual leave?" may actually be implicitly asking "or can I contact him some other way". – lessthanideal Oct 21 '15 at 16:02
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    @lessthanideal Out of office e-mail doesn't always mean he is on leave or business trip. I saw someone do it in "my business context" for "a short meeting with his boss" that has a potential to get prolonged for hours. It really depends on nature of business. –  Oct 21 '15 at 16:08

2 Answers2

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"I'm sorry, but he's just stepped out for a few minutes. Can I take a message?"

ctc
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Try "He stepped out of the office."

step out, [no object] to leave a place, esp. for a short time:

Ms. Jones has just stepped out of the office for a moment.

http://www.wordreference.com/definition/step%20out

(Cross-posted with @qweradsf.)

A.P.
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