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AIBU?

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Original poster

To hate it when a colleague replies to an email *copying in unrelated people*

119 replies

elemenopeee · 29/01/2019 22:53

I've sent Susan a query. Nothing stressful, nothing concerning, just a straightforward question. Susan replies and copies in all manner of bosses and line managers.

Why do you do this Susan?

Firstly - if I wanted others to read my email to you I'd have copied them in.

Secondly - you are embarrassing me as the higher ups then feel they have to respond to me, and do. But it was a simple query, Susan, you should have found out the info yourself and got back to me. Now I feel like I'm wasting their time with a simple query.

I'm absolutely cringing with embarrassment.

OP posts:
GnomeDePlume · 30/01/2019 06:03

One particularly irritating version of this is the 'look how busy I am' forwarding on of innocuous announcements. Normally done mid evening with the telltale emailed from phone message at the bottom.

I can end up with 4 or 5 copies of the same announcement all forwarded on by phone. I was on the original circulation list. If these people had actually been reading their emails they would have seen that the people they forwarded on to were all on the original circulation list.

Ladyoftheloch · 30/01/2019 06:05

I HATE this, one of my biggest peeves. It’s passive aggressive and so annoying.

cauliflowersqueeze · 30/01/2019 06:08

I don’t mind it nearly as much as people forwarding my emails when I don’t want them to. 😡

Boysandbuses · 30/01/2019 06:09

I am cc'd in stuff all the time. Unless the email specifically mentions me I never feel the need to respond. Being cc'd into something doesn't embarrass higher managers, nor should they feel they need to do anything. How bizarre to think that.

She is clearly doing it for a reason. Perhaps a power play, maybe she has been told she doesn't organise her time properly and she has said she gets lots of emails and so responding takes alot of her time up cc'ing in to to prove a point to them. Maybe she has told them she needs a job share and can't carry the workload on it hours and showing them how much she does.

The fact is that you have no idea why she is doing it. Wether it's something to do with you or something to do with her personally.

If you don't want other people reading your emails, then ring her. Emails at work can always be viewed by all and sundry.

floribunda18 · 30/01/2019 06:12

Just phone and ask Susan why she does it.

TheKitchenWitch · 30/01/2019 06:15

If you job share or are part time and there is one other person who needs to know what you’re doing in case something comes up while you’re not there then the best way to do it it surely to create a group email address with the relevant people in it? This means there’s no multiple emailinging or sneaky cc-ing and the people who actually need to know know.
Maybe suggest to Susan that this would be more effective?

SuchAToDo · 30/01/2019 06:16

If you are senior to her, and the questions you send her are work related, then take some control back...when you get a reply from her that has loads of people CC in to it including your bosses, sweetly reply to your bosses (with her and everyone copied in) thank you for being so understanding, I think we need to send X on training day/course etc as she doesn't seem to be able to reply to a simple question with out replying to everyone ...

Or if she is junior to you, speak to her boss and ask them to have a word...(or if you are her boss you will have to have a word yourself)....and just say to her that she is compromising company security by cc everyone in

Longdistance · 30/01/2019 06:17

My dh ‘colleague ‘ ccd him into something the other week. The job is behind, and everyone involved are not bothered. Dh emailed this guy to do something that he asked him to do weeks ago. He hadn’t done it, but managed to cc a load of people in. The guy got a bollocking as it’s frowned upon in the company and seen as wank.

BrightYellowDaffodil · 30/01/2019 06:18

YANBU. It’s the equivalent of Susan saying “LOOK HOW IMPORTANT I AM - I KNOW LOTS OF SENIOR PEOPLE”.

It’s tiresome but ultimately she’s making a fool of herself if that’s why she’s doing it.

Sweetpea55 · 30/01/2019 06:20

Next time you have to ask her something why don't you mention in the email that there is no need to cc everyone in her reply as she has your upmost attention .

Insomnibrat · 30/01/2019 06:23

Those people who Susan CC'd?

They're sick of Susan's shit too.

ReflectentMonatomism · 30/01/2019 06:31

I am a long-time emailer (I have most of my personal and work email back to 1986, I was using email regularly back to 1983). Cc has always been shitty.

My hypothesis has always been that historically offices were constrained by how many copies you could make with carbon paper and a typewriter, because up until the late 1980s even photocopiers were expensive luxuries (cc is carbon copy, of course). So you didn’t play these games with passive-aggressive creation of paper trails because it was hard work and only for serious use. Now it’s cost free, and culture takes a long time to catch up. It would be interesting to plot “average number of cc’s over time” from the corpus of email I have, it I bet it rises over the years.

What I used to do was automatically reject with a snotty reply all email where I was one of the cc’s and there were more than 5 others, and all email where I was the recipient and there were more than ten cc’s. But that is a bit aggressive-aggressive.

StealthPolarBear · 30/01/2019 06:41

Do you have instant messenger?

Gizlotsmum · 30/01/2019 06:42

See I will add cc’s when I feel like I am being asked the same thing multiple times and have answered each time, have already done it weeks ago but the person I responded to couldn’t find the info so assumes I haven’t done it, or I feel they should be aware of what is going on ( I have senior manager who isn’t particularly interested until things go wrong but by including him on mails he cannot deny an awareness.

I learnt from a previous manager to always add a read receipt to some people so I knew the email had arrived and been seen! Now outlook allows them to not send a read receipt which is a pain

Ethel36 · 30/01/2019 06:45

My old manager did this to me. I sent her an e-mail explaining that her request (that I go home an hour early some days to work that hour on my day off) was unreasonable as i only have childcare on the contracted days I work. Also I commuted 22 miles each way so it didnt make sense to travel 1.5 hours each way just to work for an hour! She replied enforcing her expectations and cc the whole hr department. Which ended up with an apology from hr and her attending a mandatory 'how to be a more effective manager' training program for 3 days. Her PA told me this but didn't realise it was because of me! 😂

Boredisboring · 30/01/2019 06:46

This is why I end up with over a thousand unread emails in my inbox. The whole thing is self-defeating.

RednaxelasPony · 30/01/2019 06:47

If you're not Susan's boss then Susan might be copying in her own boss because her own boss has asked her to. In the context of Susan receiving 5 million requests for info or help from a million other departments every week.

I work in an internal support department and it's astounding how other departments email in basic requests willy nilly day after day.. which in many cases could have been resolved by asking the person sitting next to them!

Belenus · 30/01/2019 06:51

Firstly - if I wanted others to read my email to you I'd have copied them in

I assume anyone and everyone can and perhaps does read any email I send. They create an audit trail.

Susan may be a snitch. But I've had micro-managers request that I cc them into everything. And I agree with PP - it may also be because she's part time.

ReflectentMonatomism · 30/01/2019 06:52

This is why I end up with over a thousand unread emails in my inbox. The whole thing is self-defeating.

Right. Email culture is toxic. I pointed out to someone whose team were sending enterperise-wide emails which started “ignore this unless (thing which only applies to 10% of recipients) that 9000 people taking 30 seconds to realise it isn’t for them is two person weeks every time it happens, and that surely for two grand they could spend a day sorting it a targeted mailing if list. He appeared to think that transferrring the cost of figuring out the recipients to bystanders were ok. I went over his head and the problem went away.

ReflectentMonatomism · 30/01/2019 06:53

But I've had micro-managers request that I cc them into everything

Sensible companies make people like that redundant, as they are adding no value.

Romanov · 30/01/2019 06:57

I have read receipts, especially when a person who does it for all their emails!

I always refuse to send

Passmethecrisps · 30/01/2019 06:58

My work place encouraged CCing. It’s a way of ensuring that anyone who might end up dealing with something has a trace back.

Where it is very irritating is when the list grows when obviously someone isn’t happy with the content. So I email Betty and sue as they need to know directly. I cc in our line manager as he may need to know. Betty is annoyed by something in my email so she adds another person in to the cc list and so it grows.

One which annoyed me recently was someone having a proper go at me for getting something wrong with a massive cc list. I replied only to her, very gently querying whether she had got it right. She replied absolutely gushing and full of apologies but only to me. So the huge list of people ccd didn’t get any update that I, in fact, had done nothing wrong

maddening · 30/01/2019 07:01

My fave though is when you complete a task or provide required info in December within. Correct time frames and then in Jan they email copying in the world asking why you didn't reply and when they can expect the response. Then I love to reply to all attaching the original reply advising to please see attached.

Believeitornot · 30/01/2019 07:02

Maybe because she is part time she feels the need to look busy. Digital “presenteeism”?

Consolidatedyourloins · 30/01/2019 07:15

I don't understand why you are feeling bad/cringey, OP.

This is totally her issue and anyone who reads your simple query and her response cc'ing everyone will think she's the muppet, not you. And if they think it's you wasting their time and not Susan then they're idiots.

I'm assume the queries are necessary and not something you could have found out yourself?