Some experts call change 'healthy' in setting boundaries – but one says negative messages can reflect badly on employer
The humble out-of-office (OOO) email is undergoing a transformation as employees increasingly use it to assert their boundaries and inject a little personality into workplace communication.
Once a perfunctory message containing little more than a return date and backup contact information, these replies are now vehicles for bold, sometimes cheeky statements about work-life balance, according to a CBC article.
“Until Thursday, just pretend I don’t exist,” reads one example shared by Canadian TikTok creator Laura Whaley, who collects creative OOO messages from her millions of followers.
Another quips, “For any urgent matters, please take a deep breath because only a few are.”
Whaley tells the CBC that these revamped messages reflect more than just humour — they’re tools for employees to push back against the expectation that being out of office doesn’t necessarily mean being disconnected.
“Taking the opportunity to really say, ‘I’m out of office until Friday with no access to email, you cannot reach me,’ is setting boundaries,” she said.
The shift comes as employees grapple with the effects of hyper-connectivity in the workplace. While technology has made remote work and flexible hours more feasible, it has also fostered a culture where employees are expected to be reachable at all hours.
Renee Heath, a communications professor at the University of New Hampshire, told the CBC that technology’s dark side has blurred the line between work and personal time.
“It’s shining a light on what can be kind of ludicrous at times — that we’re sitting on beaches and working on our laptops,” she said.
According to Statistics Canada, 21.2% of Canadian workers reported high levels of work-related stress in 2023, with balancing work and life cited as a leading cause.
Paola Accettola, CEO of the Toronto-based HR consulting firm True North, applauds the trend, tell the CBC that it challenges traditional workplace norms.
“I think it is such a healthy way to signal not just within your organization, but to other organizations, what you really believe in,” she said.
Accettola has observed a growing number of OOO messages breaking the conventional mold, with some even sharing personal reasons for taking time off, such as mental health breaks.
Still, not everyone is on board with the new trend. Business communication trainer Chris Fenning argues that overly sarcastic or unprofessional messages risk reflecting poorly on the individual and their company.
“When I get a message from someone that says, ‘I’m not at work today, thank God, because my job sucks,’ that’s a really bad reflection on the entire company,” he told the CBC.
Fenning suggests a more subtle approach to demonstrating work-life balance: “The act of not replying is a far better demonstration of your ability to detach from work when you’re not there than making a big show of it.”
HR-related email subjects are the most-used subjects for phishing emails across the world, according to a new report.
Experts caution that while humour and personality can make OOO messages stand out, they should remain professional. Heath advises crafting messages that convey competence while asserting the right to take a break.
“If it kind of stays in that realm and … doesn’t diminish anybody as you express that message, then I think you’re doing OK,” she said in the CBC article.
For Whaley, a successful OOO reply also prioritizes clarity, ensuring helpful details like alternative contacts are front and center. Fenning agrees, emphasizing brevity.
“Do not write War and Peace. Make sure that you have kept it to the point as much as possible,” he said.