Woke up to an email CC’d to 72 people to tell me my work is wrong

[CcWanker]

It literally just says

“This is WRONG Jane. WRONG”

I send out a report each week to all 72 people. One of those people has found an error and replied to all 72 with the above.

The report is literally a rundown of figures sent to me from different people which I collate into this report, it’s basically a weekly sitrep.

1. the error is so minor it makes no difference to anything
2. it isn’t my error it’s the error of the person who sent me that part of the report

This report goes out to exec level people all the way down to the bottom of the food chain. The person who has cc’d everyone is a very senior manager.

Do I respond to just her or everyone and make it clear it’s not my error?

I agree with Haggis, send to all with a reminder to respond individually. Then it's end-off. Hopefully the manager will apologise at some point!

@NoSquirrels

I might reply with something like

Thanks for noting that, RudeManager.

Could I please ask that everyone double-checks their data before sending through as I collate what’s sent in to me but have no way of checking for accuracy of figures provided.

Many thanks,

Jane

Perfect

I wouldn’t just start bcc’ing people on emails, maybe check first if this is the done thing. Obviously here, rude manager shouldn’t have replied all.
Where I work, we are told not to use bcc unless necessary and it purposely doesn’t appear when you create a new email. (Assuming internal email)

God, people, RTFT. You can highlight the OP’s updates and everything.

@GCAcademic

God, people, RTFT. You can highlight the OP’s updates and everything.

What did I miss? Op’s last update I think was yesterday.

Yep the bully manager clearly behaved badly.

Your response defines how you will be perceived...

I would ask for this to be deleted though OP in case it can come back on you?

Op
If you want to and can, make a complaint to HR. At my work, when I had a job, the bulk of little complaints backfired in the bully and she was fired!
Being in senior management doesn’t give you a license to arsehole!

I would’ve said to send NoSquirrels response, but I think now another Manager has stepped in to have your back, I’d refrain from replying.

It’s been made clear from the other managers response that ccwanker’s rude email was not appreciated nor liked. So I think maybe leave it for the manager who responded to her, to pick this up on your behalf.

What did I miss? Op’s last update I think was yesterday.

And her update made it clear a manager was dealing with it. So suggestions about how to reply are pointless, as a reply is not needed and would make the OP look foolish now.

As an ex senior manager, I would just contact your manager, express that you are upset that this email was sent to 72 people because had she contacted you, you would have been in a position to ask the person who had forwarded you the data and amended the spread sheet.

This will earn you brownie points for your attitude and responsibility, in the meantime just send an email to the person who passed you the figures and ask them to check their figures. Don't play the same game as the idiot trying to play power games.

What happened then?

I don't think you should reply at all after the other manager did, his is the last message in the e mail trail.

I'd have sent that to my line manager and asked him what the correct way to proceed is.

Thanks for noting that, RudeManager.

Could I please ask that everyone double-checks their data before sending through as I collate what’s sent in to me but have no way of checking for accuracy of figures provided.

Many thanks,

Jane

I would absolutely write as above. Immediately.

Not sure if relevant in your case.. but at my work where I regularly have to send e-mails to large audiences, and I deliberately make it as hard as possible for people to do a "reply all".

• If using Lotus Notes, so I can create private groups of addresses, which if people try to reply to, just bounces
• If using outlook, I put everyone on blind cc, and in my email body say something like "This e-mail has gone to all blah blah blah line managers"

Oh and please can we know what the cultural basis for being a dick is? I'm intrigued.

@Brefugee

I've changed workplaces now but i don't miss the days when a mail was sent out to 100 (or so) addressees and you'd get 80 Reply-All of "tks" and 10 reply-all of "stop using reply-all" and then a month later someone would reply-all with "there's a typo in the third line"

This made me laugh.

Periodically in my company, someone will accidentally send an email to a huge distribution list. There's then a wave of spanners who do a reply all "please remove me from your distribution list"... then another wave of people saying "stop using reply all" but using the reply all...... then it goes quiet for 20 mins, before another spanner does reply all saying "please remove me from the distribution list"... and it all starts all over again.

Sometimes we waste half a day.

I'd reply :
Dear Joe Bloggs ,
Thank you for your email . Can I please ask that everyone checks their data before sending to me as I have no way of checking it is accurate . I rely on the people who send it to me to double check it and just compile the report . Please could I also ask that if there is an error you reply to me individually rather than clicking "reply all". Thanks for your understanding and support.
Kind Regards
Your name here

Hi X, many thanks for the feedback. I'll take this up with the team in questions and update the report if necessary. Kind regards OP.

I would just cc the original sender and the manager who responded. Say it's not your error but thank you for letting me know. Then call her out, say I don't think reconsidered to be told about this small error. Regards...

@Celestine70

I would just cc the original sender and the manager who responded. Say it's not your error but thank you for letting me know. Then call her out, say I don't think reconsidered to be told about this small error. Regards...

I meant I don't think everyone needed to know about this small error.

I would reply to all, addressing everyone as you usually would, then I would say:

Thank you for your response. However if you notice an error by one of your colleagues as you have done in this email. I would ask that you address it with them directly to save embarrassment to them, or reply to me as you have done, but without copying everyone in. Now you have brought it to my attention I won’t highlight the person responsible in this reply but I will make contact with them after this so we can speak privately about it.

You do not need to contact them as I will now address this with them personally.

Kind regards etc

Sally is wise.

The (in)famous reply-all chain where I used to work was the one about the blocked toilet. Which went to the whole charity, trustees included. A string of replies about having to flush and flush and flush... 🙈

The CEO was not amused 😬

Where are you OP?! we need to know what's happening 😜

Jesus, I don’t think some of the posters here have ever had to work in a professional environment. Some of the suggested replies are absolutely cringeworthy and would make the OP look terrible.

Has anyone else considered the possibility that one of the 72 may have stumbled across this Mumsnet thread?