This is an issue of The Wonder Reader, a magazine in which our editors recommend a set of stories to pique your curiosity and delight you. Register here get it every saturday morning.
For some people, an out-of-office message is a simple one-line email. For others, it’s an opportunity to make a positive statement about the relationship between work and life. In 2018, Marina Koren reported on email senders who automatically delete all new messages when they are on vacation. When he first learned of the trend, he was angry: The option “seemed to violate all the email rules that we, as an internet-using community, have set for ourselves and others.” But that might not be a bad thing, he realized.
Others use their out-of-office e-mails to either apologize profusely for lack of time or vent their anger about work or the Internet. In 2024, Lora Kelley advocated “the goldilocks theory of out-of-office messaging.” “When it comes to sending a letter to let people know you’re going to be unavailable, it’s okay to say so,” he wrote.
However you decide to tell people you’re going away, switching between vacations and regular responsibilities can be difficult. Today’s magazine collects stories about leaving everyday life and then returning to it.
Out of Office
The Most Honest Message Out of the Office
By Marina Koren
What if you deleted all your email on vacation and never looked back? (From 2018)
Why Should We Work Hard Before the Holidays?
Written by Joe Pinsker
The pre-downtime period can be so intense that people need, well, a vacation to recover from it. (From 2022)
How to Choose the Right Vacation You
By Arthur C. Brooks
All it takes is matching your personality with the holiday. (From 2023)
Still Curious?
Other detours
PS
I recently asked readers to share a photo of something that makes them wonder in the world. “It’s breathtaking to survey the forest canopy and find it visible,” Kelli C., 63, in Portland, Oregon, writes.
I will continue to focus on your responses in the coming weeks.
— Isabel
