Wednesday Whine Session: “Reply All”
Every person in the corporate environment bases their day around email. I’m surprised there wasn’t a class in college that focuses solely on email writing. It’s almost as if the more emails you send the better job you’re doing. The common advice that’s given when we are hired, “to solve problems, not to send emails,“ is simply a fallacy.
Well, my average workday fits this corporate mold: I spend the majority of my time sending and receiving emails. The use of email has become second nature, an involuntary action that can be performed without much thought. Rattling off emails as fast as possible on a Friday afternoon to get out the door is a common occurrence.
The problem, however, is that a certain email feature, if overlooked, can cause some serious damage to your reputation in the office or just annoy the hell out of everyone. This feature happens to be the infamous Reply All.
In my experience, the Reply All feature can be broken down into three different categories:
- The Accidental Reply All
- The Ignorant Reply All
- The Obvious Reply All
The Accidental Reply All
If you don't work for West Coast Choppers... it's better keeping this image to yourself.
This Reply All can happen to anyone. Let’s just say you are in a rush and accidentally click reply all instead of reply. The email that you just responded to was the corporate-wide email notification that in the next month, flu shots will be provided in the office.
Unfortunately, you have an extreme fear of needles and ask if the flu shot will take place in a conference room or a more isolated area (and you explain to HR in great detail about your fear).
Well thanks to “reply all” the entire office now has insight to your needle phobia. The jokes can now begin – luckily this example is fiction… eh, or is it?
Better yet, you are about to send over a somewhat inappropriate picture to your co-worker and rather than type out their email, you simply find an old email and hit reply. Only the reply is reply all and now that picture is public knowledge… ouch.
Please consider these two examples a lesson. The next time you’re about to send something that may not be “office appropriate,” double-check the names.
The Ignorant Reply All
There is always one person who actively partakes in the ignorant reply all. A staff meeting has been scheduled on Wednesdays each week. Do I need to know that Jim is attending but may be a tad late due to a dentist appointment?
Fact: The person who set-up this photo shoot will ignorantly reply all.
Seriously, some people just don’t realize that instead of telling the world, they could reply only to the original sender to accomplish their goal. Need to add more than one person? Why not reply and add a few CCs. This isn’t rocket science, people. These emails aren’t exactly devastating to my productivity but they are annoying, hence the inclusion in my Wednesday Whine Session.
The Obvious Reply All
The obvious reply all sender has one goal in mind: To make you look bad. Their strategy begins with an email you send out to a large group. This person will reply all to the email, quickly indicating the fact that your statements/requests are wrong. Rather than replying directly to you, they feel the need to explain their feelings to the entire group — almost an attack. The workplace is competitive, and this reply all is an obvious attempt to get ahead at the expense of someone else. Similar to the Von Kaiser’s “The Curious Case of the Office Food Vulture”, there is a type of person that preys on emails. Any chance they get to showcase their knowledge, whether correct or incorrect, is a success in their eyes. Through my observations, these people generally don’t have very many friends in the office.
To take this one step further, the obvious reply all can develop a case of “last response,” meaning that no matter how many emails go back and forth, the obvious reply all sender will be the last person to write back (to everyone). The correspondence loop can not be closed until they close it. This can be very frustrating as the important emails drop further down the screen and your inbox becomes hijacked by this conversation. If the obvious reply all sender is constantly responding, without making much sense, I recommend creating a new folder and auto-filing their emails – it’s life changing.
I would listen to Uncle Sam.
The reply all function is an email necessity, there is no doubt about that. However, in a perfect world, Microsoft, GroupWise (would not exist), and Lotus Notes would have a new reply feature – “reply all impossible.” Imagine having the ability to send out an email that makes it impossible for another person to reply all. This is only something I can dream about for now. The issue isn’t going to put you over the edge, but ranting about it sure seems to help.
If this feature does exist and I’m just not privy to it – let me know… NOW.
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it somewhat exists… if you make your own private mailing list… people can’t not reply to it.
for example: if i want to email my whole team – Tim, Bob, Sue, and Carol. I’ll make a “group” under contacts with all their names/emails in it. This will allow me to email the whole team, but the important difference is that the other person does not have this group created and Notes won’t allow you to reply to it. You should get a “No Match” prompt.
There’s one more type of “reply all” – the apology reply all. It’s when you follow up an accidental reply all with an apology, for wasting most people’s time. Ironically, this wastes most people’s time.
Jared – Just curious. What e-mail client you use?
McFly – Good point. Hate the apology one as well.
I think what’s worse than the replay all attack is the CC attack. A co-worker CCs your supervisor to tell you how that you have done something wrong or not done something that was asked of you. Just send a friendly reminder, not an attack with a CC to your superior.
To me, there are few things worse than the abuse of the Reply All feature. I could go on a tirade about it, but I don’t think anyone would want to read the novel. Instead, I will warn those who don’t pay attention and fall into “The Accidental Reply All” category: A woman was fired from my work for accidentally replying all to the whole office three times. This is an excerpt from her third strike:
…no Jewish sales people at [name of my company]….
Granted, her cases were offensive, but still, be careful. The Reply All option can have more consequences than just annoying your coworkers.
LOL Brac. I have this picture in my mind of her hitting send on the reply all email, and then immediately realizing what she had done… in slow motion yelling “NOOOOOOOOOoooooooo….” in epic movie style.
i could not agree more … in addition, there is that group of people who cannot seem to figure out how to check the box (at least in our system) to include the body of the original email in their reply, or better yet, their forwarded message. i have a saved reply to these people that reads:
“I do not have ESP. Please resend this email with the content of the original email you received. You will find instructions on this attached below.”
Fancy – What a great comment. This type of reply (without the original message) happens to me all the time and can be very frustrating. I might have to use your response on the next one I get.
it was in regards to Lotus Notes…