This really pisses me off. I am beginning work as a contractor with another company, and every time I ask one person a question in an email not only does it get copied to people at the same level as me, but they copy my manager, his manager, and sometimes his manager. It pisses me off because I am asking simple questions that frankly don’t involve other people. It’s not like I am asking someone to lick my balls or anything that should be copied to management. Why do they feel the need to CC everyone? I think it’s a weird micromanagement technique so everyone is aware of exactly what I am doing at all times.
How do you feel about this? Am I overreacting? BTW, I have told no one else I feel this way so I am not some kind of crazy disgruntled employee. This just really bothers me.
The only time I’ve seen this as an IT person was when;
a> The person is basically being monitored because of a performance issue.
b> The person is being a dick and thinks you’re an idiot that’s bothering them too much and they need to inform on you or “document” for their management.
c> Micromanagement hell. Abandon all hope unless you’ve got a manager who says ‘I just delete those without reading’ and actively protects you from other management.
I really don’t think it’s A or B as I just started this project. They haven’t given me crap to do but read endless outdated documents. I am leaning towards C.
There may be corporate politics and history involved that you aren’t aware of. Try not to take it personally. Ask the other person, in a non-confrontational manner, why they are doing it. There’s a good chance that it has nothing to do with you or your job performance.
Come to think about it it isn’t just them CCing people on my emails. I get crap forwarded to me all the time that isn’t relevant to me in the slightest. I think they just like sending emails. Maybe they are like spammers and get paid by the email sent?
My opinion is that only people with a need to know should be copied. That way they don’t get their inbox cluttered up with useless junk. This is the first work I have done out of the country so maybe it’s a cultural thing.
That may depend on your line of work. I work in software development, and it is standard practice here to CC all project related email to a project mailing list, which automatically forwards the meassage to everyone assigned to the project and archieve it for the record. In our experience, this is an excellent way of keeping everyone in the loop and getting questions answered. What happens is that it is often very difficult to accurately determine who has the “need to know”. I sometimes get my questions answered by people that I didn’t know was even involved. The message log is also a very valuable tool, because it contains answers to many common questions, and it also helps explain why some decisions were made by providing a lot of background information.
I think it’s just a communication style that’s different than what you’re used to. We copy lots of people internally and externally. All our outside partners tend to copy quite a few of their people on communication too. A typical CC list might be 5 of their people and 4 of ours.
What I find annoying is when I’ve elected to copy a number of people on an e-mail and the primary recipient responds only to me. We’re pretty small, so this usually happens with external people and I find it particularly annoying in that case. If I want 4 other people at my company to get a copy of the message I’m sending you, why wouldn’t I want them to get a copy of your reply?
Actually, this makes you the textbook example of a crazy disgruntled employee. If you had just asked them why they do it, that’d be fine. Posting to a public message board about a practice that seems odd to you and specifying that it is pissing you off? Disgruntleness.
I’m with mks57. I’ve been with companies where e-mails were copied to other people as a matter of policy, formal and informal.
A fourth possibility is that e-mails are copied to others as a CYA measure. For example, let’s say I’m working with Jim on a project, but I know that Sue is indirectly involved. I’ll direct e-mails to Jim, but I’ll copy Sue so she knows what’s going on. If she needs the information, she has it, but she can’t complain that she’s not getting it. If she doesn’t need it, she can delete or file the e-mails as she sees fit, or she can tell Jim and me not to bother sending them to her, in which case I’ll document that so that if it comes up again, my butt is covered should she complain.
Likewise, I’ll copy, or more likely, blind-copy management if there’s an issue that needs to be documented officially. For example, if I’m working with Jim on a project, but there may be an issue that management needs to be aware of, I’ll blind-copy the responsible manager. This way, there’s no he-said she-said; there is objective evidence of the issue and proof that management was told about it.
I think some people are taught to never use the Reply All button, but only the Reply button. While this may be OK for personal email account, this IMHO is almost never appropriate in a professional context, for exactly the reason you have described.
I only CC someone’s supervisor when I’ve been attempting to get some help or support or even a response from someone who’s job it is to help me do MY job. For example, if I’ve been attempting to get some assistance from our online learning department (who seem to feel that faculty are not deserving of support or help or even acknowledgment) and have heard nothing for a significant period of time, I’ll re-send the original email with a “Hi, [insert name of person who ignores me here], I just wanted to let you know that I haven’t heard anything about this issue. Thanks!” and CC their direct supervisor.
Interestingly enough, I never fail to get a response within about an hour.
Please don’t think I do this as a matter of habit - it take a LOT for me to pull this, because I feel it’s passive-aggressive, and I don’t like it. But there are times when I literally cannot get a single thing accomplished with a particular individual or department unless I CC their supervisor.
This happens ALL the time, but it is part of internecine warfare between departments where I work.
If you don’t CYA 24/7 you risk a write-up if the other person presents your words or an unexplained not-in-context snippet is forwarded with an incorrect description/definition. You wouldn’t believe how easy it is to subvert meaning in really innocuous ways and make it look like someone is simply refusing to follow procedure when they are looking for references/documentation before proceeding on a job.
Unfortunately it is pretty much a necessity, and it is the GOOD bosses who suggest that it be done to cover their own employees, and the BAD bosses who are irritated by it.
In essence, it is the worst part of internal bureaucratic CYA and very likely has nothing to do with you specifically unless they previously had an issue with a contractor.
Where I work, this is standard protocol, and I like it that way. If I’m doing something wrong, I want to know. If there is some kind of dispute or misunderstanding, it can be immediately addressed. I can understand why not everyone would appreciate this kind of environment, but the organization I work for is very transparent–the right hand always knows what the left is doing–and I think it’s part of the reason it works so well.
My workplace culture is also like this … we cc a lot with the expectation that most people will skim and file for future reference if necessary. It has nothing at all to do with monitoring an employee or “documenting” performance issues. I think it really helps people understand what is going on with the office in a more comprehensive way. It’s also been a life saver when people have had unexpected illnesses or other time away.
Where I work I deal with contractors and sometimes am requested to give them technical advise. However because I am not the work assignment manager and they are usually not the project manager at their end, I need to CC my boss and their boss to keep everything kosher contractually.
Unless it’s purely technical back and forth of the test and troubleshoot variety I always copy management on everything. If I’m using the CC line it’s simply keeping them in the loop, if I BCC it’s far more CYA as our group has a (undeserved) reputation for being unresponsive, and him having our emails reduces the flack we get (telling someone no, or that their problem isn’t a priority being unresponsive, damnit).
If management isn’t already directly involved, I find this usually in people who are either worker “moles” or sucking up. Depending on the history of the person, it ranges from “Come on, man.” to “Fucking wanker.”
Some mornings I would come into work and have 100 emails on the same issue. It starts out as a general fishing expedition like “This ancient system crashed. Who knows anything about it?” sent out to anyone that might know something as well as all of their managers. Then 5 or 10 people would ‘reply to all’ to say that they don’t but maybe one of these 10 other guys they added does and 10 more people would reply to all to chime in that they don’t know either. By now the thing is 2 feet long and getting sent to 40 people. Finally someone admits to knowing about it and there are 12 more highly technical emails that go back and forth that no one gives a shit about except for the 2 people figuring it out. Many of my days started with sending out an email with “Please Do NOT reply to all anymore!” in the subject line. The summary “It crashed, we fixed it, all is well” would have worked for me.