Out-of-Office Auto-Response Emails Get Creative and Funny

• Employees are letting people know they’re out of the office in creative ways.
• Sharing bizarre — yet hilarious — OOO responses has TikTokers entertained.
• ‘On vacation. Hoping to win the lottery and never return,’ one response read.

Out-of-office emails used to be a pre-vacation afterthought, but workers now are putting more humor into their auto-responses.

TikTokers are sharing and rating the most creative OOO messages they’ve seen at work, from the funny to the sarcastic. Videos of the quirky office humor raked in millions of views and thousands of comments.

“On vacation. Hoping to win the lottery and never return,” one message read.

“ERROR 404: Employee not found,” another employee wrote.

The newest wave of employees entering the workforce, Gen Z, is getting credit for popularizing the trend of OOO emails with more pizzazz.

“Xennial here thinking Gen Z’s doing all the things I’ve dreamt of doing. Kings and queens changing work culture,” a commenter wrote.

“Millennial me- ‘I am so sorry that my absence has created an inconvenience for you. I can’t wait to be back and I’ll never take a day off again sorry,'” wrote another.

Tiktok isn’t sharing just the best OOO responses. Creators also are sharing ideas to help spice up outboxes – including pretending a robot is replying on your behalf.

Other messages come off as playful and witty:

“Enjoying life. I’ll be back when I run out of money.”

“This email is invalid and your email has been discarded. Please try again in 10 days.”

“If you’re reading this, I’m in my garden, naked and playing guitar.”

Another employee shut down emailers: “On holiday. Do I have access to the internet? Yes. Am I going to use to respond to your email? No.”

“Contact literally anyone else but me,” read one message.

Although most users praised the boldness of the response messages, others took the chance to highlight a more serious point.

“Is this fun for tiktok? Yes. Would it results immediately an HR discussion? Also Yes,” a commenter wrote under a Friday video of OOO responses.

Others discussing the same video called out the responses for being “quite unprofessional.” 

The account that posted the responses belongs to fuel company Oilshore, which responded to critics by clarifying its own policies.

“Rather than ‘unprofessional’ we prefer the terms ‘relatable’ ‘authentic’ and ‘honest,'” Oilshore wrote.