Happy Thanksgiving!

When holidays like Thanksgiving come around, I’m always reminded about the OOO (out of office) message.  What do you put in your message?  I’ve found that these messages are somewhat boring.  These can be very straightforward and factual, a bare-minimum message letting the recipient know that the individual is out of the office, the date of return, and in some instances, an alternative contact.  I want to know what people are doing, why they are taking time away from the office, and diffuse my FOMO (fear of missing out).  Anyways, one of the habits I developed from working in a virtual and global environment is to make these messages more personal and informative.  Below is an excerpt from my 2011 Thanksgiving OOO message, with some edits to bring it more up to date:

It’s Thanksgiving!  In the US, this is a holiday where we celebrate the good harvest.  Since I’m not a farmer and I live in a developed country, the harvest celebration is somewhat lost on my family and I.  I don’t think I’m alone on this.  Rather than celebrate the harvest, my family celebrates with a big dinner on Thursday night and we take the time to reflect on the many different aspects of life we have to be thankful for.  Here’s my (short) list -

• Nieces and nephews who treat me like a rock star

• TV Game Shows (ie. Wipeout)

• The “let” serve in volleyball

• Accenture – which has provided me with a network of colleagues, medical insurance, and long term disability

• The zookeepers (ie. Kathleen and her family)

• Facebook - and my Facebook friends who consider this as an acceptable avenue of staying in touch

• Mountain bikes with dual suspension

• Extremely fun, interesting, and supportive friends (who fall into or across various groups - my vball friends, triathlon friends, mba group, gymnastics teammates, etc)

• Living 30 minutes from the beach and 3 hours from the snow

• Netflix streaming

• My handicap parking permit

What are you thankful for in 2012?  Comment below.

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Archive Comments

Jason: Dual Suspension......perfect.

Jill Kunishige: Thankful for you and that you share your life so authentically, reading your posts, and bumping into you in peculiar places! ;-) Feels good to be connected!

Dayna: That's awesome Liner! I would send you a work e-mail just to see what your OOO message was for the year! Hahaha! That's pretty creative and cool to read! I bet anyone who got that would do a double take and actually read it!