I'll be out of pocket this afternoon, but I have my pager

SilkMuse - thanks for your clear definition of the correct use of "out of pocket" - its misuse drives me mad.

I occasionally work with a group of people in an office in Dallas who all, each and every one of them, use this phrase in the incorrect sense you describe - even going so far as to change their voice-mail messages to say they're "out of pocket" when they're away from the office for a few days. They happen to be a fairly rigidly hierarchical organization, and I have assumed that, when in the office, the staff-people I work with feel that they are in the manager's pockets. Thus, when they get to escape from that by travelling or going to meetings outside the office, they are in fact "out of pocket." But it's still wrong, in my book.