Dubai: It’s Friday the 13th, supposedly the unluckiest day of the year, but for many office workers around the world, it’s turning out to be anything but. Microsoft’s Outlook and Teams have been down since Thursday, leaving inboxes silent and meetings cancelled across dozens of countries.
And for those of us in the UAE, there was more good news: the government has just announced a three-day Eid Al Etihad holiday for federal government employees, which, with the weekend, makes a five-day break. A broken inbox and a long weekend to look forward to? It has well and truly brightened up our weekend.
By Friday morning, Outlook, Microsoft 365 and Teams were still topping Downdetector’s UAE site. As Microsoft’s engineers battled to bring its servers back online, the internet got to work on what it does best. And some of the world’s biggest brands weren’t about to miss the moment.
If any brand was born for this moment, it’s KitKat. The chocolate maker has spent decades telling the world to “have a break”, and on Thursday, Microsoft finally gave everyone one. KitKat’s US account pounced, posting an Instagram carousel with a knowing caption: “So we’re all just signing off for the day now, right? #outlook”.
