The internet doesn’t always have your back. Theo Moise, a catering operations manager at a science museum, faced severe backlash after posting a TikTok video on November 21 about her creative out-of-office (OOO) emails.
She shared her experience with People, stating, “The bullying from this has been awful and so many people are wishing me to lose my job, it’s crazy. Worst of all the amount of people who are saying I am just a personality or a DEI hire, and it’s so rude.”
Emphasizing her qualifications, she remarked, “I am uniquely qualified, self-accomplished, very educated, and experienced. I am doing so well for my age … I am valuable. It highlights what people truly think about me and people like me in the corporate space.”
In her TikTok video, which has garnered over 2 million views, she asked followers for their opinions on her out-of-office messages, explaining her process: “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 squirrels and sharks, and they would just be really fun little stories that you can read when I’m not there.”
She said her boss asked her to revise the emails, claiming they were “not funny” and “not professional.”
“I was like all right cool. So then I changed it and I started making the stories a lot more serious and they had a historical context and they had fun facts and they were just like great elaborate stories,” she continued in the video.
“And 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.’ So I was like okay, so I redid it again and my most recent one is giving wellness tips.”
The latest version she shared with People includes five mindfulness methods to use during work, such as “desk meditation,” avoiding multitasking, and an end-of-day “gratitude check.”
She expressed frustration in her video, stating, “Tell me why I had another conversation with [my boss] today about how unprofessional that is. How is an out-of-office email unprofessional?”
Feeling stifled by the corporate environment, she concluded, “I just feel like my personality is being smothered by corporate America right now.”
OOO emails typically inform recipients about the sender’s availability and provide alternative contacts while they are away. The expected tone is generally professional and direct. Exclaimer.com notes, “It’s not the place for jokes, misplaced humor, or strange comments.”
Moise shared her perspective, saying, “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 9 to 5. And when a few people gave me positive feedback about it, I thought my intentions worked, now I am not sure if they were being sarcastic about it.”
She also revealed that she used AI to create the messages, asserting, “It’s very simple and, nowadays, accessible to be unique. I do not fear being different; I fear being forgettable.”
Despite expecting support from netizens, many sided with her boss and advised her to abandon the “fun” emails.
One commenter remarked, “Is this worth losing your job? You’re clinging to an entrepreneur’s creative freedom mindset, but in a 9-5 corporate setting, that won’t work.” Another joked, “Keep on & you won’t even have to worry bout it.”
Some people suggested alternative avenues, such as writing an office newsletter instead, stating, “If you want to give health and wellness tips, ask to write an office newsletter. An OOO is literally just to inform people when you’re leaving and when you’ll be back. Unfortunately, yes you’re wrong.”
Some comments were lighthearted and cautionary; others were mean and unwarranted.
Meanwhile, Moise said she now understands what she did wrong.
In a follow-up video posted on November 26, Moise poked fun at her OOO writing habit, adding in the caption, “All jokes aside, I understand why I shouldnt do this anymore.”
