Argh, somebody just touched one of my pet peeves again today. I hate it when people are going to be out of the office (especially out of town) and they tell everyone else that they are going to be “out of pocket”. That’s just wrong! “Out of Pocket” != “Out of Town”. I wish people would learn that out of pocket means that you are paying for expenses out of your own pocket to be reimbursed later by the company. People around here even use that phrase when they are going out of town on a personal vacation that doesn’t have anything to do with work.
What they really mean is that they will be out of contact i.e. not checking e-mail/voicemail or taking calls on their company cell phone.
I actually found something to corroborate my definition: Out-of-pocket expenses at Wikipedia
