The end of the year is creeping up, out-of-office emails are being drafted, and one TikTok user just turned the most boring corporate ritual into the most unexpected discourse.
Enter Theo Moise, who decided out-of-office emails could be more than just a bureaucratic snooze-fest. Her viral TikTok – we’re talking 2.2 million views and counting — chronicles her epic battle with corporate ettiquette, while working as a catering operations manager at a science museum in the US.
“I’m getting into trouble and i’m bringing it to you,” Theo shared.
“I’ve been writing these out-of-office emails and they are like super cute, right?” Apparently Theo initially crafted wild stories about squirrels and sharks in her OOO.
According to Theo, her OOO message was deemed “not funny” and “not professional” by her boss.
In an effort to comply, she said she shifted her style to more serious narratives infused with historical context and fun facts. “So then I changed it and I started making the stories a lot more serious,” she explained in the video.
But, apparently even this approach didn’t pass with her higher-ups. “He again comes up to me and he’s like, ‘No, they can’t be stories like that, you know, they need to be like professional’.”
In a last-ditch effort to appease the powers that be, Theo said that she tried to shift her email stories toward wellness tips. Yes, you read that right — her OOO included advice on “desk meditation” and an end-of-day “gratitude check”. It kind of feels like a low key way of telling her boss to calm the hell down, and I don’t hate it. However, it seems like her boss did.
“Tell me why I had another conversation with [my boss] today about how unprofessional that is,” Theo said in her video.
“How is an out-of-office email unprofessional?” Oh my dear diva, don’t you know there is no escape from corporate jargon hell!!
How are people reacting to her OOO TikTok?
The TikTok comments section has become quite the battleground. While some viewers are cheering her on, others are firmly on Team Boss.
One user quipped, “Just leave it as a simple OOO email before you’re OOO permanently.”
Another pointedly said, “The point of an OOO email is to tell people how long you’re out, when you’ll be back, and who to reach if it’s urgent. It’s not a creative outlet.” Youch!
But before you feel too bad for her, she wasn’t actually crafting these long ass whimsical tales herself — she was using AI to whip them up outside work hours.
In her chat with PEOPLE, Theo explained her intentions: “I sincerely thought it was a missed opportunity to showcase personality. I just wanted to be creative and create a spark of joy in people’s mundane nine to five.” And let’s be real — who doesn’t want a bit of joy in their inbox?
In the end, Theo took it all in stride: “I have no problem admitting that I made a mistake and misunderstood the assignment.”
So here’s my takeaway from all this: sometimes less is more, and while you might not want to trust ChatGPT for advice on your OOO emails, you can definitely count on TikTok to remind you when you’re wrong!
Lead image: Theo Moise
The post This TikToker Is Getting Roasted For Being A ’Lil Too ‘Creative’ With Her Out-Of-Office Emails appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
