Some workers use their out-of-office vacation announcement to make a big statement about their relationship with their job. But it’s okay to just say you’ll be gone.

First, here are four new stories from Atlantic:

Keep it simple

Most people prepare simple email autoresponders before they go on vacation. They cover the basics: “I’m gone until (date). If you need help, please email (colleague). Thanks.” Still, over the past decade, snarky, awkward, or overly personal variations of the away message have emerged. 2015, New York Times reported on the proliferation of elaborate auto-replies describing in poetic terms what the vacationing employee was up to—sometimes with actual poems. And as my colleague Marina Koren noted in 2018, some bold emailers are even experimenting with announcing that they will be delete all new messages upon their return. Recently, some Gen Zers in particular have focused on setting firm boundaries for work and being allegedly sending happy notes telling people not to contact them.

When people go too far with the holiday OOO message, they tend to go in one of two directions. The first group are the excusers: those who say they are sorry and share too much information to justify their absence. They may also leave open the possibility that they may actually respond to you before the date of their return. Like my colleague Charlie Warzel wrote in his 2021 Substack newsletter, such autoresponders are “a vivid reflection of a work culture that values ​​constant productivity and the near-total overlap of work and life” while not setting realistic expectations.

The second category is something I’ve only seen a handful of 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. An example: a TikTok of a snarky OOO email that included a video message in which an employee informed everyone he was in Europe and refused to say when he would be back. This type of approach is an extreme extreme – most people would not be bold enough to do this. It provides good content but seems to sacrifice professionalism for bravado. Also, offering too much color in your autoresponder can be risky. The Cut prevails“You never know who might email you while you’re away, so proceed with caution when using humor.” (It’s generally a good workplace practice.)

The OOO notice lives somewhere between public declaration and private note. It happens within the semi-protected space of an email correspondence, but it is actually 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 letting people know you won’t be available, it’s okay to just say so.

Family:

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Today’s news

1. A VoePass the flight crashed off São Paulo, killing all 61 people on board, according to Brazilian authorities.
2. A California man who participated in the January 6 uprising was sentenced to 20 years in prison in prison for assaulting police officers with a dangerous weapon. He stomped on policemen’s heads and attacked them with flagpoles.
3. The Russian military said it was send more troops and reinforcements to counter Ukrainian cross-border ground attacks. Ukraine has reportedly captured many small settlements.

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Dispatch

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Evening reading

Your air conditioner is lying to you

By Daniel Engber

My electric bill last month was disgusting. I’ve had my window air conditioners on for hours every day, and now I have to pay the price: the most expensive month of cooling I’ve ever had. If there was ever a time to hit my AC’s “Money Saver” button, it would be now. But I don’t think I will, not this summer and never ever – because the money saver mode has always struck me as a scam.

Read the full article.

More from Atlantic

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Cultural break

Look. On HBO IndustryGen Z turns out to be equally obsessed with money as the corporate strikers of Wall Streetwrites Spencer Kornhaber.

Read. In the novel On strike against GodJoanna Russ imagines a freer world while confront their injustices frontal.

Play our daily crossword.

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Stephanie Bai contributed to this newsletter.

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