I’ve been hearing good things about “Carrier Pigeons”, too. I have an Indian colleague who insists that heliographs are the shiznit, as well.
Well, to put a direction on the discussion, let say the emails are for work purpose and not personal. Here are some, eh, ‘case study’
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Someone emailed me specifically, without a CC/BCC that he needs my help with his part of the project, which if his superior is to know, would cast him in a bad light.
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An ongoing discussion of different methods to handle the project.
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Personal opinion of the project progress to a project manager. It is ethical or part of etiquette to CC or even to BCC it?
Then there is the wonderful story of Linda Ellerbee.
Many may of heard of her - she has had a successful career as a big time journalist on several television shows.
Let me put on my Paul Harvey hat and tell you the real story of how Linda become famous:
It seems Linda was working for AP (or UPI - I forget) as one of hundreds of people, doing basic research and working at a 9-5 job in the office.
One day, an email was sent to all employees, world-wide.
Linda thought it was stupid, and fired off an email to a co-worker who was also a good personal friend.
Linda is a very funny, and talented wordsmith. Her email to her friend was quite witty, but also very insightful and well-written.
Unfortunately for Linda, she hit “reply to all.”
Yep - she accidentally replied to every single person in the entire AP (or UPI) offices, world-wide!
Needless to say, the next day - Linda Ellerbee was fired.
But that is not how the story ended.
So many people thought her response was funny and well-written that word spread, and her email was forwarded on, and on, to other organizations. In short time, Linda started getting offers and sure enough, she finally got a call from network television and the rest, as they say, is history.
This is important. As a general rule, never send an email that you would not feel comfortable if the entire company was CCed.
I don’t understand why the boss would care. But no matter. This request should be verbal since it’s a big favor.
This is strictly business and I don’t see why it can’t be emailed with the entire company copied, unless some of the methods discussed are underhanded.
The first word gives the answer: personal. This discussion is unsuitable for email or any other forum in my opinion. This feedback should be coming from the PM’s boss, not from you. If project delays are going to impact your business operations, tell your own boss about it.
I cc whenever all parties need to be aware of the message or where I tell my boss I had this discussion with this person, I feel it is only fair for that person to know what I told the boss they said, in case clarification needs to happen.
I BCC only when I feel the boss should know what is going on and I don’t necessarily want the other person to know that I am also emailing the boss.
The true usefulness of BCC is for mass mailings. I would send them to a group that I wanted the replies to go to and bcc the recipients. Bcc’ing the boss is nice when you have to copy them, but you don’t want it the person you are sending it to to think you are trying to sic the boss on them. I had bosses that wanted to be copied on every mail I sent out. Some people would be a bit upset because they thought I was trying to escalate to management, when the truth was that my manager was just a micromanager, so I would bcc the boss instead of cc.
[quote=“Patty_O_Furniture, post:25, topic:508463”]
I do agree that the report should come from my PM. I guess the gist of the question is should the PM CC/BCC/Forward my mail to a next-level boss?
+1. I wish more people who send out mailings to many people would understand the basic function of it; several times I have given people my private email adress, told them to keep it private, only to get an email with 50 people in the CC field, everybody of whom could see my email adress (as I could see theirs).
And often, even when I tell people “Please use the BCC feature for mailings, so my adress doesn’t get into false hands from the 49 other receivers”, they continue CC, because they are too lazy or tech-stupid to figure it out. If you don’t know how to email, then learn it or let somebody else do it! Gah.
As for at work, I once emailed a person on the employees council (Personalrat) with a question, and got an answer from a different person, and then got a phone call “I forwarded your email without asking, because he knows more about it, was that okay?” I shrugged and said Yeah, because at that point the damage was already done and I saw no use in shouting at her anymore, but it’s defnitly NOT okay. Whenever you’re in a position dealing with sensitive information - as the employees council - the etiquette is to err on the side of caution and not forward or CC it without asking.
For the sender, the reminder that all emails can be read by the admin is a foremost warning, but that doesn’t absolve the receiver of courtesy. Yes, it takes longer to write a new mail describing the problem in general terms without any identifiying specifics, instead of just forwarding /CC with one klick, but it’s the correct move, I’d say.
BCC in a corporate setting is a no-no. I can’t keep track of my own petty internal political bullshit politics, how can I possibly keep up with other people that put me on BCC for their internal bullshit politics? I write that seriously. simply do not bcc people. If you must, then forward to your boss as a CYA. Even better, CC your boss as a CYA.
Also, digital rights management is a great thing. Anything dodgy you really want to share but don’t want to spin out of control, then just click that rights management button. Ya, it’s still possible to xerox the screen or take a photo and forward that, but it’s a reasonably safe way to keep the noise down.