To find this passive aggressive?

[passiveaggressiveemail]

I have a colleague who copies my manager into every email they send to me. No backstory of issues between us, had a good working relationship over the past year since I started working there. The emails are not particularly contentious, sometimes it's just a "can you attend this meeting?" for example. Would you find this passive aggressive? It's starting to really grate on me and i feel hugely undermined. No one else does this. Am I overreacting that this is really getting to me now? I plan to raise it with the person but I just wanted some perspectives first as I'm not sure if this is my issue or whether this would irritate others too!

Just get your manager to reply "No need to copy me into these messages, my inbox is pretty busy already".

Can you raise it with your manager and get them to ask colleague to stop doing it?

Does your manager micromanage your colleague or are there other reasons she might want to cover herself? I currently work for someone who questions everything I do and I end up copying her into everything as otherwise I somehow get into trouble. Maybe ask your colleague why she does it before you complain about her.

Yeah it is, and you know it. No one does this for good reason. Agree with the PP advising you get your manager to reply. Nip that in the bud from early.

Yes I think this might be the way forward, to ask manager to tell them it's unnecessary. She is also confused as to why she's being copied in to every single thing, it's just so unnecessary. Suppose I just wanted to gauge how others would feel!

My manager is not colleague's manager - colleague works in a different department and is line managed by someone else.

I think a lot of people do this (especially those WFH) to prove to their managers that they are working.

Thank you!! I knew it. Literally no one does this with good intentions do they? It's passive aggressive and it's almost like a statement of, I don't trust you to respond so I'm going to make sure you're monitored by your manager🙄
And I have never given the person any reason to think this is necessary! That's what makes it more bizarre to me.

Copy in her manager to every reply? 😂

@Moveoverdarlin
Colleague doesn't need to prove anything to my manager because we don't have the same manager. Which makes it more strange.

I've been very tempted, trust me 😂

She is also confused as to why she's being copied in to every single thing, it's just so unnecessary.

Then your manager needs to do some actual managing and tell this person to stop copying her in to every single email they send you.

Ah ok, definitely see if your manager will ask her to stop then.

Your manager needs to deal with it themselves.
Some people in my team feel the need to copy in the entire team into some menial conversations. Think along the lines of "Good luck in your retirement, Grace. It's been a pleasure working with you". Like, why does everyone needs to know that you wrote this apart from Grace? And I worked in teams where everyone had to copy in the entire team when they wrote an email (for risk management reasons). Maybe it is customary in her team to copy in manager. Of your manager doesn't want to get these emails, they need to say something.

Don’t worry about it, if it is helpful for your manager to see the messages it saves them chasing you. If your manager really is bemused then they will let the sender know or ignore the messages.

It could be that the employee is under performing or struggling and therefor is CC’ing in the manager as proof they’re doing the work etc. I only say this because it’s what I had to do after a bad review last March, I was going through a rough time and it was reflecting on my work, although other team members didn’t notice, my mangager did, I was slipping with deadlines etc. So for a while I was CC’ing ny manager in so she could see I was A) doing the work, keeping up with deadlines and B) keep and eye on me and how I was performing in general. Definitely wasn’t meant to undermine anyone, it was me being incompetent at the time. I know you said the line managers are different, but maybe her manager might reach out to people she’s been working with for feedback, so this is like a paper trail. Again I say this because my manager asked any stakeholders I worked wity for feedback on work I was doing with them at this time for my next review 😭

I moved into a role in a dept with a culture of high drama and copying everyone in up to the highest level. I just replied to only the writer of the email to sort it out and then if the more senior people raised it said I hadn't realised they had been copied in to something so trivial and it was sorted. Most of the time, however, the PAs of said senior people had just deleted the email. It soon calmed down.

Keep doing this, don't play colleague's daft game and see what happens. If your manager is halfway decent they will deal with it because it surely must be annoying them. Don't rise to their silliness.