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Automatic Reply

Automatic Reply celebrates the pithy, surprising or otherwise amusing out-of-office email messages pinging around workplaces.

From This Collection

Automatic Reply

Automatic Reply: "Gone fishin'"

by Maria Hollenhorst
Jul 31, 2019
Tom Hanley keeps his out-of-office email short and sweet.
Meager/Fox Photos/Getty Images
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Automatic Reply

Automatic Reply: "I'm not bitter"

by Maria Hollenhorst
Jul 29, 2019
When Steve Heyl goes on vacation, his email software gets a voice.
When Steve Heyl went on a cruise, he left his autoresponder software behind.
Graeme Robertson/Getty Images
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Automatic Reply

Automatic Reply: "I don't have a clever out-of-office message"

by Maria Hollenhorst
Jul 25, 2019
Privacy lawyer Eileen Braunreiter has a word of caution about out-of-office messages.
Privacy lawyer Eileen Braunreiter has a word of caution about out-of-office messages.
Jamie Squire/Getty Images
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Automatic Reply

Automatic Reply: "We have switched to Mezcal"

by Maria Hollenhorst
Jul 19, 2019
When Jeremy Tofte traveled to Mexico this spring, it was his first vacation in more than a year.
A surfer rides a wave on his wake board in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca state, Mexico on December 9, 2017.
DAVID GANNON/AFP/Getty Images
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Automatic Reply

Automatic Reply: "I am in diastole"

by Maria Hollenhorst
Jul 18, 2019
Dr. Gabriel Bosslet's out-of-office message uses a medical term as a metaphor for taking time off.
A yacht cruises in the Aegean sea in 2016. Dr. Gabriel Bosslet says he learned the importance of disconnecting from work after his friend's death three years ago.
Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images
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Automatic Reply

"Please call the number set below this explanatory rhyme"

by Maria Hollenhorst
Jul 9, 2019
Dr. Sybert saw your email, but just doesn't have the time. Instead you can look forward to her auto-reply that rhymes.
Virginia Sybert, a clinical professor of medical genetics at the University of Washington, answers her emails with rhymes.
NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images
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Automatic Reply

Automatic Reply: "I am currently in Oklahoma chasing storms"

by Maria Hollenhorst
Jul 3, 2019
Matthew Cappucci poured his "hopes and dreams" into one out-of-office response.
View of tornado in Cordell, Oklahoma on May 22, 1981
NOAA Photo Library/Getty Images
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Automatic Reply

Automatic Reply: "The opposite of taking time off for fun"

by Maria Hollenhorst
Jun 27, 2019
When Enarime Mueller went on maternity leave, she wanted to be left alone.
Gillian Thomas, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s Women's Rights Project, tells us what the new law covers.
Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images
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Automatic Reply

Automatic Reply: “I’m stuck in 1955”

by Maria Hollenhorst
Jun 25, 2019
When Shiva Stella can’t respond to emails, she has a go-to excuse.
Picture taken inside a replica of the DeLorean, a time-machine vehicle which appeared in the movie " Back to the Future."
MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP/Getty Images
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