More email pet peeves · Apr 21, 07:12 PM
To all those who misuse email, this post is for you..no, not the spammers, there is a special place in hell reserved for you. This missive is for those that are using email improperly, causing unnecessary work or wasting time. Yes, dear readers, it is time for another email etiquette post. The likelihood of my readers needing this advice is extremely low but my hope is that posting my pet peeves will be cathartic for all of us.
Number one pet peeve for this week…users who send a request by email to two or three different people. If you are one of those people, as Jon Stewart would say, meet me at camera 3.
diatribe@Cam3
Listen, only ONE person is needed to action an email request. I know you think that by emailing multiple people you are hedging your bets, i.e. someone will respond in the time frame you need. Sometimes that may even be true. But, when multiple people are in the TO: field for a job that only takes one person that tells me instantly that I don’t have to do anything because someone else will do it. It also makes it look like you are just sharing information with multiple people and not savvy enough to use the CC: for that function. If you want ME to do something, email ME and ME only. And further, if I find out that you did email me directly but sent a second and a third email to others asking us all to do the same thing…and we all start working on it…and we all find out that you wasted our time, there will be trouble. If you don’t know where to send an email, send it to the Manager, they’ll delegate it. Don’t send it to three people like some stupid fishing expedition because then those three people have to email each other to figure out who is going to get back to you, THEN get back to you, all of that generating more email and delay.
/diatribe@Cam3
Second pet peeve is not a new one…NEVER..and I mean NEVER forward a message you were blind copied on. I got the email. The whole building got the email. Don’t assume that the person who was smart enough to use the BCC in the first place was too dumb to include the necessary people on the email. I cannot think of one good reason to forward an email you receive through bcc…If there is one, let me know.
Maybe I misplaced that /diatribe tag.
— Sean Heuchert
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