Extenuating Circumstances

I think out of office auto responders should be interesting and not boring. I like to think I’ve done a good job when people email me to let me know that my out of office reply made their day. Here’s one I used recently:

You are in an Outlook inbox. There is a message here.

> look

You are in an Outlook inbox. There is a message here.

> north

You cannot go north.

> south

You cannot go south. There are no exits, because you are in Outlook.

> inventory

You have: 2,651 unread emails and 26 assigned tasks. You are carrying a small ball of stress. Your score is 26 points out of a total of 100.

> read message

The message says:

“Hi.

Monday 23rd and Tuesday 24th April I’m in Santa Cruz with the xxxxxxxx team. I’ll be responding to email, but slowly.

Wednesday 25th April through Friday 27th April I’m on vacation in Missouri. (PDX +2). I’ll be responding to email even more slowly.

If it’s urgent, xxxxx xxxxx knows how to get hold of me.

Dan”

> quit

You cannot quit Outlook.