The Economist October 9th 2021 Business 63“I
will beback in the office [in two
weeks] and have limited WiFi con
nection in the meantime.” It is safe to
assume that readers of this column are
familiar with something like this mes
sage (which, like all the others cited
below, comes from real life). As with all
aspects of office culture, the autoreply
has evolved over time—and more quickly
in the past 18 plague months. Good eti
quette has not always kept up.
The precursor of the electronic “out of
office” is sometimes found in Mediterra
nean countries, where a handwritten
note taped to a shop front announces to
the world: “Closed for August, back in
September”. The digital autoreply was
initially a quirk of Microsoft, a software
giant, dating back to the company’s
Xenix email system of the late 1980s,
before bleeding into the mainstream in
the following two decades.
In those early days responses tended
to be terse and to the point. That style
persists to this day, especially in the
higher echelons of corporate hierarchies.
csuite executives’ autoreplies seldom
feature jokes or emojis—if, that is, they
are set up in the first place. A chief exec
utive does not have to explain her or his
absence or lack of prompt response,
except possibly to the board (which will
invariably have been informed of the
boss’s movements).
Lower down the pecking order, how
ever, people increasingly try to put their
personal mark on their autoreplies. And
if this standin Bartleby’s inbox is a
guide, creativity has burgeoned in the
age of lockdowns and remote work.
Some try to be witty (“I will have limited
enthusiasm for access to email”). Others
share (“I am out of the office getting
married!”). Others still plump for exot
icism (“Please note that I am out travelling in a remote area in Greenland and will
have no internet or phone connection for
the majority of the period”).
Often, the autoreply involves people
beyond the sender and recipient. Your
columnist has on numerous occasions
been named as the person to whom ad
dressees of her colleagues’ autoreplies
ought to direct queries. That can have
longrunning consequences. Public
relations types still refuse to remove her
email address from their mailing lists
even though she has patiently, and repeat
edly, explained that climate change is not
her beat so there is no point in sending her
daily press releases about agroforestry in
Kenya. Occasionally autoreplies turn into
a cyberspace version of a treasure hunt.
During the summer Bartleby’s email ad
dress was given out while she herself was
on holiday so the recipient ended up being
redirected again.
Such foibles notwithstanding, most
office workers have no problem with the
“out of office”. A survey of 1,000 people
conducted in 2015 by Microsoft found that
most respondents liked the practice. Thatis partly because setting it can mark the
beginning of a holiday (which it did for
77% of the surveyed). But 60% also con
fessed to enjoying a jolly reply received
from others.
Still, clear dos and don’ts exist. As an
“out of office” connoisseur (and victim),
Bartleby recommends being straight
forward and informative. State the dates
when you are away. If the period of ab
sence is longer than a typical holiday, a
word of explanation may be in order
(jury duty, parental leave, sabbatical).
The message itself does not have to be
a labour of love. Oversharing is awkward.
“I’m on pto” (paid time off ) has been
common in the coronaera despite the
inelegance of reminding strangers that
you received compensation for being
unavailable. Humblebrags or an air of
selfimportance strike a false note.
Trying to be funny often falls flat on
its face. Including suggestions to follow
you on Twitter or emojis of an umbrella
on a beach are best avoided. Three in ten
respondents to Microsoft’s survey re
ported succumbing to sentiments of
envy and fear of missing out upon being
notified that others enjoyed tropical
vacations. Veering offtopic, whether by
including personal confessions or
quotes from Muhammad Ali, shows not
erudition or finesse but a distracted
mind given to rambling. It is like having
water on the knee—the best things found
in the wrong places.
Being aware people want your atten
tion before you return to your post can be
instrumental in the management of any
other large organisation. But if you are
surfing in Maui, attending a conference,
running an ultramarathon in the Mojave
desert, writing a novel, or taking time off
to paint your mother’s garage, no one
really needs to know the details. The art of the automated reply in an increasingly wired worldBartlebyOutofoffice experience
turning out 374,000 cars in the last year of
American ownership, to making 773,000 in
the 12 months to June at a healthy profit. Its
aim of making 1.2m cars a year by 2025
looks attainable. It is also leading the way
in selling its cars on subscription or direct
ly to consumers at a fixed price, rather than
through dealerships.
More important, Volvo is ahead of most
rivals in sating the growing appetite for
electric vehicles (evs) among motorists
and investors alike. It has pledged to go all
electric by 2030, long before most rivals;
spun off its internalcombustionengine
business into a standalone operation in
order to focus on evs; and joined forces
with Northvolt, a Swedish battery firm, to
build a gigafactory and ensure supply. It al
so halfowns Polestar, a pureevmarque
that last month announced plans to go
public next year in a reverse merger with a
specialpurpose acquisition company (and
hopes to fetch a valuation of $20bn). Lean
ing on Volvo for manufacturing capacity
and retail and service networks puts Pole
star in a better position than most rival ev
startups, which lack either.
Geely will pocket a handy profit after adecade or so of owning Volvo outright. The
Chinese firm will retain a dominant stake
but the flotation will also let it concentrate
on its reorganisation from a holding com
pany owning various carmakers into a
transporttechnology group which also
makes the smartphones and satellites that
enable the provision of transport services
and, eventually, autonomous vehicles.
Volvo, for its part, expects to raise nearly
$3bn in the ipo, cash Mr Samuelsson says
the carmaker needs if it is to keepupits
electric momentum. If it does,rivalswill
have even more catching up to do.n