Top 5 Fake Out of Office Messages From Furloughed Defense Workers

Monday marks the first day for roughly 650,000 Defense Department employees to take unpaid leave.

The employees are legally prohibited from conducting any work while on furlough and must therefore put up auto-reply messages to notify emailers they are not in the office. According to one DoD worker -- Karen Roberts -- the human resources office has required employees to make the following “out-of-office” message: “I am furloughed today but will return [DATE]. Please contact me during my regular hours on non-furlough days.”

Some Defense employees, however, had some more creative ideas and they took to the Facebook group “How I Spent My Furlough Day” -- the same group responsible for the “Federal Furlough Five-Mile Fun Run” -- to share them. Here are the best five:

5) From Bruce Krapovicky: “I am currently furloughed and unable to respond to your email. If this were a weekend or a holiday I would respond to your email on my Blackberry, but federal employees are not permitted to use their BBs or perform any work on furlough days. Your national security is important to me. Please leave a message and I will get back with you tomorrow.”

4) From Joshua Marcuse: “Thank you for your message. Due to unexpectedly high volume of incompetence, intransigence, and irresponsibility by the elected leadership of this great country, we are experiencing 20 percent delays. Please hold until a public servant is available to assist you. Your email will be answered in the order it was received. Thank you.”

3) From Kelli Seybolt: “Furloughed! In case of emergency please contact the Senate Appropriations Committee at 202-224-7363 and request supplemental funding. I will return your call as soon as possible.”

2) From Andrea Yaffe: "Today's my furlough day. I am supposed to do 20 percent less work. You'll find out on Monday whether your email is part of the other 80 percent."

And, the number one fake out-of-office message is…

1) From Scott Buchanan: “It’s against the law for me to check my blackberry today, so I'm going to the beach instead.”

(Image via mj007/Shutterstock.com)