ColemanMedia Report

Junior media buyer Greg Abernathy, scheduled to leave for vacation next Friday, began responding to project requests with verbal out of office replies early Monday, according to several sources at the San Francisco office of Goodbar, Silverstein & Partners.  Abernathy, who has reportedly been talking up his planned South American trip for weeks, responded verbally to a meeting request by saying “You’ve reached the desk of Greg Abernathy.  I will be out of the office on vacation starting Monday, December 21st.  If you have a project or request that requires immediate attention, please give it to someone who’s not busy getting ready for their trip to Punte del Este.”  After co-workers reminded Abernathy that he was sitting right there, Abernathy reportedly responded by saying, “I will have no access to email or phone messages, but if you leave a message, I will attempt to respond upon my return,” before going to the break room to get coffee.

A report released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau Monday revealed that “Out of Office” emails outnumbered actual work man-hours in the advertising industry by nearly 400 times from Thursday, July 2nd to Friday, July 3rd. According to the report, nearly 110 million automatic “Out of Office” email messages were sent throughout the industry, versus a combined 267.5 hours of actual work performed during the same time period. “Our data indicates that throughout the entire ad industry, approximately 47 people actually showed up to work on Thursday,” said lead IAB research Carlos del Funcionario. “And further study reveals that those 47 people instigated or received approximately 72% of the Out of Office emails generated during that time. We saw Out of Office volume decrease significantly on Friday, July 3rd, as our estimate for employees physically in the workplace fell to just Roger in Ad Operations.”