Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra has shared an amusing account of his experience during the global Microsoft Outlook outage, revealing that he eventually began enjoying life without emails. While the disruption initially left him anxious and helpless, he admitted feeling something unexpected when the service returned: regret.
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Taking to X, Mahindra reflected on how dependent he had become on emails, comparing his changing emotions during the outage to the five stages of grief.
'I felt like a castaway'
"Yes, it’s back & working again on my devices. But the Microsoft Outlook outage made me realise just how dependent I’ve become on email. I think I went through something resembling the five stages of grief. First, denial. Surely it was just my connection? Then anxiety. What was I missing? Who was trying to reach me? Third stage: a strange sense of helplessness. Almost as if I’d been cut off from the world. But then came a stage I hadn’t expected. A feeling of being almost weightless. Free from the constant need to react, respond, reply. Then finally, when Outlook came back, an emotion I hadn’t anticipated at all. Regret. I felt like a castaway who’d finally begun to enjoy being stranded on an island, only to see a rescue ship approaching."
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{{/usCountry}}Mahindra's remarks highlighted an unusual upside to the technical disruption. What began as frustration over unanswered emails eventually offered him a rare break from the constant pressure to remain connected and respond to messages.
Microsoft Outlook outage
The comments came amid a widespread Microsoft outage that began on Thursday, November 12, disrupting Outlook and other Microsoft 365 services worldwide.
According to the Associated Press, nearly 130,000 users reported Outlook-related problems on Downdetector shortly after 1 pm Eastern Time on Thursday. Users complained about difficulties accessing inboxes, sending and receiving emails, and connecting to other Microsoft services, including Teams and Copilot.
(Also read: Microsoft outage disrupts global financial markets and trading desks, forces traders to use phones)
In a November 13 update reported by The Verge, Microsoft said services were gradually recovering, with broader improvements in North America, sustained progress across much of Europe and encouraging signs in the Asia-Pacific region.
However, the company warned that some users might continue to experience intermittent access problems or delayed email delivery as restoration efforts continued. Microsoft had not provided an estimated timeline for full restoration.