Should Out-Of-Office Be Funny?
Throughout this summer we have probably all seen our fair share of out-of-office emails flying into our inbox’s and even set one ourselves.
Out-of-office emails used to be a short, automated response saying that you are away for so many days and giving an alternative contact for anything urgent. And in many cases, this is still the basis of what out-of-office is. However, some senders are now choosing to set their replies to fun responses incorporating jokes or imagery – and we love it!
Gen Z’s have been setting the trend online showing off their humorous out-of-office emails, with some even going so far as to create videos for the automated emails.
And it’s definitely got people talking. Here are some of our favourites we’ve seen knocking about:
“Right email. Wrong timing.”
“Knock knock. Who’s there? Not me.”
“I’m out of the office and probably chilling on the beach. Enjoy your work week.”
“If found, contact someone else.”
LinkedIn account LinkedIn News Europe took a poll to see what their members think, and the outcome might not be quite what you expect. According to the poll, 38% of respondents believe it’s acceptable to keep things light hearted and fun while 37 % advocated for a balanced approach. This only leaves 25% of the LinkedIn professionals thinking these messages should remain strictly professional. There is definitely an agreement though, that external OOO emails should remain professional and in line with the company’s voice, but why not have a bit of fun with your work colleagues?
We asked our Instagram followers their thoughts and here are our results: 50% voted for professional externally and funny internally, while the other 50% voted to keep it all light and fun. This is similar to those found from LinkedIn though our results are from a considerably smaller collection of votes are arguably a more focused audience of young professionals).
We also asked our own Gen Z colleague what she thought to the trend and whether she thought it would be here to stay, “to a certain extent it should remain professional as you never know who might be contacting you” but she then went on to say, “if it is from an internal colleague, yeah it could be quite fun and I would definitely have a giggle. I probably would do it but only internally for people that I know would understand the humour of it.”
So, what do you think? Should we keep out-of-office emails professional, or should we be able to have a bit of fun?