Super long weekend?
Filipino workers weighed in on the global outage that affected Microsoft 365 services for several hours.
READ: Microsoft outage drags on for hours, disrupting Outlook, Teams for thousands
The outage affected Outlook, Teams, Copilot and other Microsoft productivity tools beginning early Friday morning, November 13, (Philippine time).
Workers who rely on these services took to social media to share their reactions to the technical disruption that greeted them on the last working day of the week.
Reactions to the outage were mixed, with some admitting that it could mean an overwhelming backlog of work once the services are restored.
“Anyone here in PH affected by the Outlook, Copilot and Sharepoint issue? Tambak na workload ‘yan manaya, on a Friday?
Hindi ko sure kung matutuwa ba ko. Lol,” a Threads user wrote.
“Tapos dami deadline ta’s naka-holiday 3 days next week,” another Threads user commented, adding a melting face emoji.
“Global ang Outlook. ‘Di ko makuha OTP tuloy. Haha, tambak work talaga,” a different Pinoy, wrote.
Others, however, joked that the outage gave them a reprieve from work, with some quipping that the anticipated “long weekend” for Metro Manila workers due to the 49th ASEAN Summit had effectively been extended.
“Microsoft is down today, ASEAN is taking a long weekend next week. Kahit ang universe ay hinting that we should log off. Huhu,” an online user wrote.
“Teams ‘yung nag-wowork samin. Everything else, waley, hahaha!
So petiks na lang muna since Friday naman na,” another Threads user commented.
“I think we just need to take the win. Hahahaa. Rest now, backlogs later,” a different Pinoy commented.
“Good job… happy long weekend sa’tin,” another Facebook user wrote, accompanied by a laughing emoji.
“Uwian naaaaa. Happy weekend na agad,” a different Facebook user wrote.
“End of the world daw kasi. Hahaha! Also, early start of a loooong weekend for NCR [National Capital Region] peeps,” another Pinoy wrote.
Workers in Metro Manila are set to enjoy an extended break after the Palace declared November 16 to 18 as “special non-working days” in the National Capital Region (NCR) due to the ASEAN Summit.
The declaration was made to facilitate the smoother movement of ASEAN delegates as they attend summit-related events at various venues across the region.
Meanwhile, another online user shared that they were unable to open their office door because of the outage.
The online user later shared that their office had turned off its “Badge system,” requiring the door to be operated manually.
Microsoft 365 offers a suite of cloud-powered productivity tools that allow people to work, collaborate, and communicate from virtually anywhere.
A Microsoft executive said the outage was not caused by a cybersecurity breach.
The incident has significantly disrupted the work of employees, including government personnel, such as those at the Supreme Court of the Philippines.
As of 1:01 p.m. on Friday, Microsoft said it is “engaged in multiple workstreams to alleviate impact,” address the current blocker, and “returning portions of service infrastructure back to a healthy state.”
