Manager and "gentle reminder" emails

[YorkshirePuddingsGreatestFan]

Would it bother you if your manager sent a "gentle reminder" email about work needing to be completed that included other staff members on the CC list?

I work hard at my job and always get everything done by deadlines. It would an exceptional reason for me to miss a deadline.

My manager sends out a "gentle reminder" on the day of the deadline but it includes all staff members who have work due to be finished that day and it's CC'd to everyone. Everyone can see who has work to finish.

The ones who suck up to her are never on this list as they work unpaid overtime to get their work done early then faff about on Fridays. It's informally called the "email of shame"!

I've had a bad week this week. I had to leave early on Tuesday as the hospital phoned to say my mother had a fall in a shopping centre and had been sent there by ambulance and she needed picking up. She's fine. Just shaken up rather than injured but the shopping centre rang for the ambulance as a precaution.

To make the time back up, I worked extra hours on Wednesday and Thursday. Came in today and knew I had tasks to finish and I did get everything done before I left for the day.

It's really got to me today that I've done everything I could to catch up, and I did meet the deadline despite what happened on Tuesday, yet I still ended up on the email of shame for everyone to see.

AIBU to be irked by the email of shame, or am I just tired and overreacting?

It’s definitely passive aggressive. Have you got anyone you can raise it with?

is the information in the email easily visible (e.g. task dashboards)?
if yes, tbh just leave it.

does your manager gets results? how do the others feel about it?

sorry you have a tough time

Yes that would be annoying. I’m sure all staff know they have deadlines and when.

As the manager you should take the approach and tell everyone if you’re ever struggling to meet a deadline to reach out and let the manager know. The manager should then be doing whatever they can to help you make the deadline. Bring in some help from others that don’t have a deadline that day etc. They are supposed to support their employees and work as a team.

Just reply passive aggressively, with sincere regards etc

I wouldn’t take this personally at all. It’s a bit micro managery and maybe she should only target those who miss deadlines repeatedly but I still wouldn’t care.

I hate the term. Along with ‘polite notice’ - all passive aggressive. I’d much rather receive a ‘Jumps you’re a day late for this piece of work, everything ok?’ type message or an honest face to face conversation if it’s a regular occurrence/ affecting other people or performance. The cc’ing everyone in (unless it’s management for a performance issue) is also passive aggressive 🙄

I had a 'gentle reminder' about my dentist appointment. Do they think we have no resilience at all.

The use the phrase gentle reminder would bother me.

YANBU, if your manager knows that everyone knows when the deadline is there is no need for this email.

I used to get reminder emails before the deadline for something that drove me nuts. You've told me the deadline, I will work to the deadline, unless and until I'm late you should leave me alone.

cc ing others in is completely arsey behaviour

Maybe respond immediately - cc-ing everyone - saying 'as always, my work will be completed on schedule'.

Hate the phrase 'gentle reminder' - just means 'get on with it sharpish'.

I think reminders of deadlines should either be general if sent to a group - 'if you haven't yet, please remember to by xx time'. Otherwise they should be individual. Copy and paste plus change recipient- it's not that hard.

I think the most devastating reply these days (and do it ‘reply to all’) would be 👍

So you have deadlines every Friday?

If it’s called the email of shame no one likes it obviously and someone should tell her. She could instead do her job and get up and speak to any individuals she is concerned about.

I’ve worked in places where we were under extreme pressure from higher ups to come down on staff around deadlines, and no amount of us providing context as to why what they were asking was unreasonable, or why reminders weren’t going to help solve a systemic problem, made any difference. One of many reasons why no middle managers stay there much longer than a year. Could this be the “gentlest” way your manager is dealing with that kind of pressure? Have you raised it at your 1-1?

The ones who suck up to her are never on this list as they work unpaid overtime to get their work done early then faff about on Fridays.

That's not really sucking up. If they're choosing to work unpaid overtime then be more relaxed on Fridays then that's just a preference.

That’s what I’d do. Might not be the diplomatic thing to do but very tempting.

I suspect the manager is managing her own anxiety, by ticking the ‘they can’t say they didn’t know’ box in her mind.

But yes, raise it 1 to 1.

My advice would be to not take it personally. I have a manager who does this sort of thing. It's just her way and she may well be being leaned on by her manager.

It's not really an 'email of shame' if it's a reminder about upcoming deadlines. Different if it was about missed deadlines.

It’s passive aggressive but it wouldn’t bother me.

I'd probably respond with a request to stop including me on these emails, that I'd never been late with anything and if I ever was, then by all means include me going forward but if I ever WAS late with something it means something disasterous had happened and the deadline would probably be the last thing on my mind.

"Can I please remind you all to do X, Y and Z by 17:00 today?"

None of this "gentle". It's such an annoying weasel word when used like this.

The other one that boils my piss is:

"I hope this email finds you well."

when they could have just put:

"I hope you are well."

This. I have someone several rungs who is responsible for booking stuff the following week and getting it ready. On Thursday every week he sends everyone a reminder to get everything booked. Everything is booked for the following weel by the Tuesday at the latest. It pisses all of us off as he doesn’t even look at the requirements for the following g week until Monday morning. We know as it tell us when he has read them! Several people have raised it with his line manager

He is pretty crap at his job too eg on Thursday morning I had booked 20 things and written explicitly I need at least 20 of these please can you ensure we have 20 of these ready to be handed out at 9am. We have over a hundred in stock and at 8.30 am there was 7! Fortunately I checked and I was like I did book these over a week ago and I need 20,. …. He often complains he doesn’t have enough to do either……

She's one of the directors so not really.

My boss sent one of those gentle reminder emails during the week. I know it isn’t meant for me, he knows it isn’t meant for me. My colleagues and I know to a person who that email is for and who it isn’t for. Why are you taking it personally?