To, CC, BCC, and the Dreaded Reply All
Every email needs an addressee, and every time you address an email, you make significant choices. First, are you going to be careful as you hover your mouse over the To line and make sure that you are sending the email to your intended recipient, and not to some hapless soul who shares the same initials?
That’s the first addressing error, and it has led attorneys to send their strategies to opposing counsel, snarky authors to send their nasties to the people they are trashing, and employers to send comments that end up as evidence in wrongful termination lawsuits. At the least, it has led to some very embarrassing moments. So the first rule of addressing emails is:
- Make sure you are sending your email ONLY to the person you intend it to reach.
CC: Carbon Copy (Why do we still use this acronym?)
Next, decide whether to use CC. When you copy, or CC someone on an email, you are saying “FYI – For Your Information”. People do not expect to act on emails on which they have been CC’d. If you expect your reader to act on your email, put him or her in the To line. And don’t overuse CC. Some people routinely delete or ignore emails on which they are CC’d. Some are annoyed that their inbox is stuffed with messages that are only of tangential importance to them. If there are people in your organization to whom you routinely send CC emails, take a moment to ask them if they really want to receive all those emails from you.
Avoid using CC for self-protection or self-aggrandizement. If you want to let your boss know that you are on top of a problem he assigned you, send a separate email saying, “Just wanted to let you know that I contacted Christine and she will get me the information by Thursday” instead of CCing him on a series of emails.
- CC = FYI only
BCC: Blind Carbon Copy
When you put someone’s name in the BCC line, other recipients will not be able to see that that person received the email. “Blind” refers to the other people who received the email. BCC is useful if you are sending out a bulk email and you do not want everyone’s email addresses to be visible in the To or CC line. In these cases, BCC protects the privacy of the recipients.
However, other uses of BCC are less straightforward. Basically, using BCC means you are hiding something: You are not letting John know that Sally saw the email. In some organizations, people use BCC to secretly show bosses the poor work of their colleagues or otherwise undermine their peers. For this reason, many people avoid using BCC altogether, preferring transparency to secrecy.
Here’s one thing you should never do: If you are BCC’d on a group email, do not hit Reply All. Doing so blows your anonymity and shocks anyone who might have been uncomfortable with your receiving the email in the first place.
- BCC = Be Careful Comrade
Reply All
I did a nationwide survey of Anderson School alumni a few years ago, asking them what email practice annoyed them most. The winner? Reply All. Everyone hates Reply All, yet many people continue to use it. They think other people overuse it. Occasionally, Reply All is useful; for example, you might use it when you are trying to set up a meeting with a few people and everyone needs to know everyone else’s availability. Tedious as it may be, it’s hard to avoid a bunch of Reply All messages saying “I’m not available on the 3rd; can we make it the 14th?” However, if you are setting up a large meeting and send out a bulk email to all potential attendees inviting them, each person does not need to hit Reply All to say, “I’ll be there,” or “Can’t make it.” In such a case, responses should go only to the person who sent the email.
Certainly avoid using Reply All just to let everyone know what you are doing. Trust me, everyone does not care what you are doing. They care about doing what they are supposed to be doing. They also care a lot about reducing the email volume in their already clogged Inbox. So having you write “Handling the AAA account” and sending it to them will not buy you brownie points.
- Reply All: Not so fast.
Email can speed to hundreds of people instantly: that’s both the good news and the bad news. If we don’t address our emails carefully and responsibly, we risk losing our credibility and the goodwill of our readers. So use To, CC, BCC, and Reply All slowly and judiciously. Remember, an email is like an arrow: once you’ve launched it, you can never get it back.
©2013 Elizabeth Danziger All rights reserved
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