Worker’s “Inappropriate” Out of Office Emails Keep Getting Her in Trouble

Think of your typical out-of-office email. What does it look like to you? Probably a message indicating the dates that the person you're going to contact will be away from their work email and when they'll return, right?

Well, if you answered that it contains a short story involving various animals, then you and this TikToker named Theo (@chefmoisehere) would probably get along quite nicely.

She penned in a viral TikTok that's accrued over 1.9 million views about how her manager wasn't too happy with the artistic licenses she's taken with her out-of-office emails. Theo disagrees with her manager's take, however, there were numerous users on the application who thought she should heed her boss' advice.

Theo begins her video by looking directly into the camera. A text overlay in her clip reads: "OOO email keeps getting me in trouble," she writes, appending a sad face to the end of her clip.

She shares her workplace's gripe with her messages as she polishes her eyeglasses and speaks into the camera.

"So I keep getting the same 'talking to' from my boss about the exact same situation that I just apparently am not learning from," she states.

Next, she informs TikTok users that she'd like to bring the matter to their attention so that they could assess it and offer up their opinion on the matter.

"So I wanted to bring it to you. Because you let me know if I'm like overreacting, if I'm bugging or if I'm just like a crash out, because I don't really understand," she says to her viewers. "I've been writing these out-of-office emails and they are like super cute, right?

At first, they were like fun little stories about like adventures involving like squirrels and sharks and they would just be really fun like little stories that you can read when you know I'm not there."

While Theo thought that these anecdotes were cute and fun, apparently, her manager didn't agree with that sentiment and made their lack of appreciation for these email tales known.

Going on with her TikTok, Theo said her boss told her: "You can't do that. Like it's not funny. They're like, it's not professional like you can't do silly stuff like that. So I'm like, all right, cool."

Theo decided to alter the tone and mood of her emails. "I changed it and I started making the stories a lot more serious and they had like a historical context. And they had fun facts and they were just like...great elaborate stories. And then he again comes up to me and he's like, no. They can't be, you know stories like that."

She continued, stating that her boss doubled down on his original comment, "They need to be like professional and you know, whatever." Theo took the criticism and decided to apply their bosses' critiques to their out-of-office emails further. "So I was like okay so then, I re-did it again and my most recent one is giving wellness tips."

Theo delineated the type of health-conscious tips she'd share with her co-workers. "Like how to stretch at your desk. How to practice mindfulness. You know, how to make sure that you get up and walk every, you know, twenty minutes. If you spend a long time at your desk, just like wellness things."

Again, these types of tips in her emails seemed to further stoke the ire of her manager. "Tell me why I had another conversation with this man today. About how unprofessional that is. How is an out of office email unprofessional?" the TikToker asked her viewers.

Going on, she stated: "Like, I'm out of office. And it's literally just a fun little quirky story? And you're saying that it's unprofessional? Like how is it unprofessional?" she asked again.

Furthermore, she feels like her manager is needlessly stifling the little bit of expression she's managed to create for herself via her out of office messages at work.

"And I just feel like my personality is being smothered by corporate America right now," she said directly into the camera. "So I'm just like crashing out. But, giving you ten ways you can, you know, be a little healthier at your desk is unprofessional?!" at this point in the video she shoots a bewildered look into the camera.

She capped off her clip by asking other TikTokers if she's wrong to be confused and seemingly a little bit upset about the criticisms she experienced in the workplace regarding her out of office emails.

It didn't seem like there were too many folks in the comments section of Theo's video who sympathized with her plight. One person simply wrote: "I don't understand what you don't understand."

While another person believes that her manager was giving her a lot of chances to rectify the situation: "He spoke to you TOO many times about this."

Others remarked that there were different venues for her to express herself creatively. "Maybe start a newsletter or blog friend," one TikTok user penned.

Someone else said that it wouldn't be smart of her to jeopardize her job for something they seemingly deemed as a trivial gripe. "This is not the job market to be playing around in sis."

Another TikToker echoed the sentiment: "This isn't the hill to die on lol."

And then there was a user who summed up the response Theo had to her video: "'Am I wrong?' All 6000 comments: "YES."

What do you think? Should Theo heed the advice from her fellow TikTok users? Or does she have a point that there isn't anything wrong with putting short stories and/or blog posts in her out-of-office emails?