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When to say 'yes' to email
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Photonerd 
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- Joined: 31-March 05
Posted 20 June 2012 - 09:02 AM
The last point illustrates my earlier comment (from the first email story), that the problem is not email, it's the user.
"Would hitting reply-all be a disaster"? This is the $64,000 example we always hear, and this is also the problem: you're asking the wrong question.
Far too many people use Cc as a crutch when sending out initial emails. People who need to provide specific information for 5-10 people, but don't want to write 5-10 emails (or make 5-10 phone calls) with individual points for the recipient, so they "genericize" it and copy 10 people instead. Then everyone who replies (to comment or get more information), copies all or some of those people creating a pile of emails over the course of a day or two, causing stress and resentment in some cases for the people who don't actually want to be copied on half of the stuff. In short, people have bad habits to start with, so when you copy them needlessly, their bad habits are going to magnify your Cc mistake 10-fold over the course of a week.
DON'T USE CC AT ALL, unless no further information or more specific information is needed, based on what's provided. In other words if you copy 8 people. All 8 people should have everything they need from that email in order to act on it / perform their responsibilities, etc. If they have to start emailing you back or other people back, asking for more specifics, you're guilty of "Cc Fail". You Cc'd when you should've sent a separate email or made an interoffice call.
Moreover, people in business and life send Cc emails to all kinds of other people who don't NEED to be included, and probably don't WANT to be included. I've received over the years, hundreds of Cc emails from extended family, friends, fantasy sports league, whatever, joking about this, or showing a chain-mail picture of that... and even if I like the person my reaction is nearly always, "Why the hell are you sending this to me via Cc? We email twice a year about something real - do we really need to have an email conversation over the latest Obama conspiracy or the bicycle riding monkey? And if you don't expect me to respond, how interested could I possibly be?!"
Don't assume people want to listen to you small talk over email; it's almost never the case, even if they like you. 
Keep your conversations relatively private / targeted and you don't have this problem of "what is safe to say" WRT to Cc.
Here's a better rule than the one in the story: are there more than 3 people copied onto your email? If so, you're probably doing something wrong unless every person on that list needs the information you're providing, in order to handle some aspect of their responsibility WRT to that project / problem.
"Would hitting reply-all be a disaster"? This is the $64,000 example we always hear, and this is also the problem: you're asking the wrong question.
Far too many people use Cc as a crutch when sending out initial emails. People who need to provide specific information for 5-10 people, but don't want to write 5-10 emails (or make 5-10 phone calls) with individual points for the recipient, so they "genericize" it and copy 10 people instead. Then everyone who replies (to comment or get more information), copies all or some of those people creating a pile of emails over the course of a day or two, causing stress and resentment in some cases for the people who don't actually want to be copied on half of the stuff. In short, people have bad habits to start with, so when you copy them needlessly, their bad habits are going to magnify your Cc mistake 10-fold over the course of a week.
DON'T USE CC AT ALL, unless no further information or more specific information is needed, based on what's provided. In other words if you copy 8 people. All 8 people should have everything they need from that email in order to act on it / perform their responsibilities, etc. If they have to start emailing you back or other people back, asking for more specifics, you're guilty of "Cc Fail". You Cc'd when you should've sent a separate email or made an interoffice call.
Moreover, people in business and life send Cc emails to all kinds of other people who don't NEED to be included, and probably don't WANT to be included. I've received over the years, hundreds of Cc emails from extended family, friends, fantasy sports league, whatever, joking about this, or showing a chain-mail picture of that... and even if I like the person my reaction is nearly always, "Why the hell are you sending this to me via Cc? We email twice a year about something real - do we really need to have an email conversation over the latest Obama conspiracy or the bicycle riding monkey? And if you don't expect me to respond, how interested could I possibly be?!"
Don't assume people want to listen to you small talk over email; it's almost never the case, even if they like you. Keep your conversations relatively private / targeted and you don't have this problem of "what is safe to say" WRT to Cc.
Here's a better rule than the one in the story: are there more than 3 people copied onto your email? If so, you're probably doing something wrong unless every person on that list needs the information you're providing, in order to handle some aspect of their responsibility WRT to that project / problem.
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