Petty I know but (Would) IBU to copy everyone into the reply?

[VladmirsPoutine]

I know this is quite a petty gripe but it's been eating away at me all evening so I've turned to the reasonable minds of MN.

I'm working on a project in which I have to complete a certain aspect before a colleague can complete her bit. The deadline is looming so about 3 weeks ago she e-mailed me asking me to send her my bit when I was done. I replied that same afternoon with my finished section saying if she wanted me to make any changes or had any comments to let me know soon as and it'd be my first priority.

I didn't hear anything back so all was well in the world. Earlier this afternoon I received an e-mail from her basically saying "Vlad, I asked you to send me xyz 3 weeks ago so I could complete abc as the deadline is nearing. Where is it? Can you send it ASAP." She'd copied in her manager, my manager and their managers too, along with a few others on the edges of the project.

She's not a malicious person so what I suspect happened is that her manager basically asked her where it was as he probably wanted to have a once-over before we declared it finished. So she must have panicked and just sent the e-mail to everyone.

Thing is, if she'd just e-mailed me or just came over to me to ask about it I would have happily said 'Here it is.... I sent it to you that day but you must have overlooked it.'

Now I feel like copying in all the people in the e-mail she sent with a PA reply. As I see it - even if I take the high road and just quietly e-mail her to the others it will look as though I dropped the ball and suddenly picked it back up again when brought to attention.

I've had quite a fairly long and extensive career so I'm not a stranger to these sorts of antics but for one or two reasons this has really irked me.

If you're still with me: WIBU to copy everyone else into the reply saying I sent this to you the same day you asked me about it (which incidentally was to schedule), or should I just send it to her alone in an e-mail and think no more of it?

So no, it's not petty. It's self-preservation.

“Strategic CC’ing” is really a pet hate of mine. She’s thrown you under a bus, so you’re well within your rights to reply to all, simply stating your surprise at receiving the email and attaching your original response (which will clearly, have the date you replied on it).

Yep don't forward the email but reply all and attach what you sent with please see attached, I sent this to you on xdate. There is no way in hell I could not reply all to that, like you say she probably has missed it somehow, otherwise copying in the world is an odd thing to do, but regardless you need to reply all so that those copied realise it was already done.

Yes, a bright and breezy 'Re-sending it, let me know if you want any changes' - and cc in all that she cc'd in.

This happens a lot. Reply all, add your original email as an attachment.

"Please see attached sent on xx.x.18, please let me know if there's anything else required"

She called you out, call her out back.

copy every fucker in

This!

Resend the email with the completed work and CC everyone she sent her 'plea' to.

Make sure everyone sees the date you originally sent your completed work.

YANBU. I'd copy in also.

Be brief and to the point.

‘Hi XXX, see attached the e-mail I sent you three weeks ago.
Again, please let me know if any adjustments are needed, as I know it’s now nearing the deadline and we’re all quite busy. Thanks!’

To the point, a slight bit of PA, but nothing that you could be pulled up for. Also reply soon, otherwise they’ll really think you didn’t send it!

Vlad, really? Of course you cc everyone in! Can’t believe you’d think anything else is acceptable.

You'd be a fool not to CC everyone else in.

You have no choice but to cc all. Be polite. Add a few more people to the cc list!

Haha. I didn't post at yh3 time because it was v outing, but I got into a similar situation over a stupid pta issue. I replied all on the copy. The recipient was furious. But like all the pp here, I felt v strongly that I was not going to take the blame and she started it by attacking me in public.

So be prepared for.coleague to be mad. But protect yourself. If possible, word v politely.

What else can you do but reply all?
Otherwise they will all think that not only did you not do the work and hold everyone up, but you also don’t reply to emails..

She has put you in a corner and it’s titally reasonable to reply all:

Definitely NOT unreasonable to reply all.

I love that you think this is something other than malicious... but it really is!

Unless the email to all was on the back of another email sent to all, no-one unthinkingly cc’s managers in on a project email surely?

Oh, and I’d love it if you could email with “do you mean this?”

Reply all, with the information requested and the original date sent on it.

It's tempting to escalate, but I'm sure nobody else is any keener to deal with her crap than you are.

I don’t understand why you want to reply in a PA way. That will make you look bad. Just keep it short and simple. The facts speak for themselves. I find PA stuff childish.

Definitely reply all to forwarding the original. She's out of order and trying to scape goat you. In my opinion you need to show that you aren't the incapable one or else there's a chance the others could form that opinion.

Nope, I'd be forwarding my original sent email right back. I don't cover for people who try to show me up like that.

Reply all & include original message.

In bold

Wouldn’t be thinking it over. Would have replied to all with original message as attachment Saying
Sorry think you must have missed original email sent you on xx date, here it is again.

Nothing else just that.

Could be she genuine missed it but a quick call to you couldn’t sorted that - and check you def did send it and it didn’t get stuck because large file or something!

The decision for you to reply all in your reply was unequivocally made by her - when she copied everybody in with her original email. As well as obviously covering your back and making it crystal clear where the fault lay, even if it were something tiny, boring, innocuous and without any blaming, it's just standard business procedure to keep everybody in the trail in the loop. If you have something to say that you only want one or two people to see, you should probably start a fresh email (referring to the other one if need be) and keep the original one fully accessible to everybody who is already included.

As for wanting to be really PA in your reply (and whoever could blame you, when she was openly accusing you for her own lack of professionalism), this is definitely a case of 'less is more'. The most PA thing that you could do is to simply send the original dated email to her and everybody she copied in with just a very short message: "Hi Scapegoater, here's the original email again." If you go into too much detail berating her, the others will get sidetracked by the resulting exchanges between the two of you and may overlook what actually happened. By giving no distracting details as an instant summary of what happened, the others will be curious and then read through the whole original trail to find out exactly what happened. You keep your dignity and professionalism and the upper hand and she presents the damning evidence herself, which EVERYBODY will read through and seize on and do your self-justifying job for you in spades. It will be clearly remembered with glee as 'that time when Scapegoater made herself look massively stupid' rather than 'that spat between Scapegoater and Vlad'.

Copy everyone in. She's not your friend. You don't owe her any favours.