AIBU to think the CC button is unnecessary at work

[justhereforthecraic]

I have currently started in a senior role at my work which i am really excited about. I will be working alongside 3 other seniors.
My issue is that every time I email 2 of them with a GENUINE query that can most likely be sorted at our level, they both CC their manager in.

For context, we all have different managers as we are all in different localities. Anyway, in a meeting last week with my line manager, he said that he basically detests being CCd into emails unless there is an urgent need. He would prefer for us to work together as the Senior group to get a solution and if we cant, it can be escalated upwards for further input. He also said if it was an urgent need, he would prefer a phonecall. I totally agree with this.

This is a mere rant really.... She didnt even give any of us a chance to come up with a plan or try and work togethr ?!?!

i also think its sheer laziness.... and a "LOOK AT ME " kind of tactic....[sceptical]

Anyway.... Rant over!

Can we delete the CC button?! or maybe just delete certain staff!

An ancient and ecstatically happy retiree writes: CC stands for carbon copy. Decades ago, before email, word processor operators, typists and secretaries routinely used carbon paper to make copies of important letters, memos etc. The carbon copy would be smudgy and sometimes quite difficult to read if the carbon paper had been used a few times, but it was only used for the file copies and for passing to people who needed a copy for information. If you think of an email you've been CC'd into as a fuzzy barely legible sheet of flimsy paper, maybe it will help.

If you work with an unmotivated, lazy group of people the cc covers you and shows the incompetence of the people you work with.

You are lucky that you don't realise how important it can be.

A great teacher I used to know would reply to an accidental 'reply all', of which there were infuriatingly many, with a meme saying something like 'every time you reply all a kitten dies', or 'reply all makes me a sad panda'. She had a whole trove of them. Ioved her.

The CC button isn't the issue, it's that you work with shitty people or in a company with an awful culture.

Where I work the CC is used to copy in people who have a genuine need to be kept informed but don't need to take action.

Obviously there are the occasional cockwombles who copy in managers, and there are some managers who micro manage and insist on being CC'd into everything. But these are in the minority.

I personally would hate for it to be gone because otherwise how do I know when I receive an email if it's for my information (in which case I can skim read later with a cuppa) or am I required to read it in detail and take action on a specific timescale?

When used correctly it's a useful feature that enables efficiency.

Different line managers work differently though. Yours doesn't like being CCed but maybe theirs does. Mine likes to be CCed into everything. It drives me nuts but it's just the way he prefers to work.

I used to have a controlling micro-manager who wanted to be cc’d into every single word I wrote. It felt so demeaning!

Yanbu.

CC can be useful as a "FYI but I don't need you to do anything" tool.

But it drives me INSANE when people use it as a scattergun because they can't be arsed to work out who to directly send it to so they send it to 12 different people in the hope that one is the right one. Or they send it to everyone 'just in case'. Why don't these people understand that sending to everyone increases the likelihood of no-one doing it because everyone assumes someone else has picked it up?