The Goldilocks Theory of Out-of-Office Messages
4 min read
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Some workers use their vacation out-of-office message to make a big statement about their relationship to their job. But it’s okay to simply say you’ll be away.
First, here are four new stories from The Atlantic:
- The truth about Trump’s press conference
- What the convention could do for Kamala Harris
- David Frum: “Sorry, Richard Nixon.”
- The Olympics could have avoided the ugly boxing debate.
Keep It Simple
Most people prepare straightforward email auto-replies before they go on vacation. They cover the basics: “I am away until [date]. If you need assistance, please email [colleague]. Thank you.” Yet over the past decade, snarky, awkward, or overly personal variations on the away message have emerged. In 2015, The New York Times reported on the proliferation of verbose auto-responses outlining in poetic terms what the vacationing employee was up to—sometimes using actual poems. And as my colleague Marina Koren noted in 2018, some bold emailers even experiment with the announcement that they will be deleting all new messages upon their return. More recently, some Gen Zers, in particular, have focused on setting firm boundaries with work and are allegedly sending gleeful notes telling people not to contact them.
When people go too far with the vacation OOO message, they tend to go in one of two directions. The first group are the apologizers: those who say they’re sorry and share too much information to justify their absence. They may also leave open the possibility that they might actually respond to you before the date they are supposed to return. As my colleague Charlie Warzel wrote in his Substack newsletter in 2021, such auto-responses are “a vivid reflection of a work culture that valorizes constant productivity and the near-total overlap of work and life” while also failing to set realistic expectations.
The second category is something I have seen only a few times in the wild, though it seems to fuel a cottage industry of viral videos and tabloid coverage: the truly in-your-face OOO email. One example: a TikTok of a sassy OOO email that contained a video message in which an employee informed everyone that he was in Europe and refused to say when he would return. This sort of approach is an extreme outlier—most people wouldn’t be bold enough to do this. It makes for good content but seems to sacrifice professionalism for bravado. Plus, offering too much color in your auto-reply can be risky. The Cut advises, “You never know who might email you while you’re away, so proceed with caution if you’re using humor.” (That is generally a good workplace practice.)
The OOO message lives somewhere between public declaration and private note. It happens within the semi-protected space of an email correspondence, but it is effectively a public communication. Some workers see it as a chance to make a statement about the role of work in their life, or to make art. But when it comes to sending a note informing people that you will not be available, it’s okay to simply say that.
Related:
- It’s time to give up on email.
- The most honest out-of-office message
Today’s News
- A VoePass flight crashed outside São Paulo, killing all 61 people aboard, according to Brazilian authorities.
- A California man who participated in the January 6 insurrection was sentenced to 20 years in prison for assaulting police officers with a dangerous weapon. He stomped on police officers’ heads and attacked them with flagpoles.
- The Russian military said that it was sending more troops and reinforcements to fight off Ukraine’s cross-border ground assault. Ukraine has reportedly captured many small settlements.
Dispatches
- The Books Briefing: The impulse to quit on the spot is a secret fantasy for many workers, Emma Sarappo writes. These are the books to read when you want to quit.
- The Weekly Planet: Sorry, you need a neck fan, Saahil Desai writes. Soon, everybody will be wearing them.
- Atlantic Intelligence: New searchbots underscore familiar problems with generative AI, Damon Beres writes.
Explore all of our newsletters here.
Evening Read
Your Air Conditioner Is Lying to You
By Daniel Engber
My electric bill last month was disgusting. I’ve kept my window air-conditioning units on for hours every day, and now I have to pay the price: the most expensive month of cooling that I’ve ever had. If there ever was a time to press my AC’s “Money Saver” button, it would be now. But I don’t think I will, not this summer and not ever—because money-saver mode has always struck me as a sham.
Read the full article.
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Culture Break
Watch. In HBO’s Industry, Gen Z reveals itself to be just as money-obsessed as the corporate raiders of Wall Street, Spencer Kornhaber writes.
Read. In the novel On Strike Against God, Joanna Russ imagines a freer world while confronting its inequities head-on.
Play our daily crossword.
Stephanie Bai contributed to this newsletter.
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