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[pigeon]

The best thing is to make a mailing list which contains the C-suite along with a bunch of other actually relevant people so that you can nonchalantly cc in the entire management structure.

 

[captive]

It's the most passive aggressive bullshit you will deal with at work.

no its not.

There are literally tons of reasons to do this and people listed them here.
Ive had several bosses at different companies say "i dont want to get stuck in email hell, start CCing their boss, and me" and sure enough i get a response after that.

 

[FonkyByNature]

I think it's a common problem with people who work with email.

I also have those punks at my work. Sometimes i want to seriously kick their ass till they beg me to stop ! and i'm far from a guy who doesn't do his work. I'm more than on time.

You always have these assholes ruining your day. I think these people need to get laid more often.

 

[Goodlife]

If I'm requesting someone's time then I'll email / phone their boss before emailing / phoning the person.

Never had to CC someone's boss in because they hadn't done the work, so far I've always managed to work through it with that person, rather than involve their boss.

 

[The Horror the horror]

Unfortunately, I find myself having to do this often.

My duties are cyclical and require employees to make certain submissions to me regularly and on time. Usually it's on a Friday when they're due. Monday comes around, I have nothing. I get tired of babysitting adults that should know better, so I'll CC the boss to get their attention.

I haven't had any complaints, at least none directed towards me in my presence.

 

[bengraven]

no its not.

There are literally tons of reasons to do this and people listed them here.
Ive had several bosses at different companies say "i dont want to get stuck in email hell, start CCing their boss, and me" and sure enough i get a response after that.

I meant with his example listed.

 

[EatinOlives]

I've had a few people put hundreds of emails in the CC line instead of the BCC. Whenever it happens I just reply all and say hello.

Ah, the classic Reply-All email avalanche.

Reply All -> Omg why did you hit reply all
Reply All -> Sorry! I'll BCC next time
Reply All -> GUYS I HAVE 10 EMAILS STOP REPLYING ALL
Reply All -> YOU JUST REPLIED ALL COMPLAINING ABOUT REPLY ALL STOP IT!
Reply All -> YOU JUST DID THE SAME THING!!

x100

 

[I'm an expert]

Unfortunately, I find myself having to do this often.

My duties are cyclical and require employees to make certain submissions to me regularly and on time. Usually it's on a Friday when they're due. Monday comes around, I have nothing. I get tired of babysitting adults that should know better, so I'll CC the boss to get their attention.

I haven't had any complaints, at least none directed towards me in my presence.

That's cause everyone just shit talks you at the parties you're not invited to.

 

[Sol..]

I remember having this discussion at a DISC assessment function thingy at work. The "D's" and "I's" really had issues with this. I can't get heated about this type of thing. I'm the type of person to look inward to see what i'm doing to encourage such actions assuming there aren't obvious external reasons.

 

[The Horror the horror]

That's cause everyone just shit talks you at the parties you're not invited to.

Good for them, on both counts.

 

[Koomaster]

Oh god yes; I've dealt with this. What I've done when people cc me in an e-mail for no reason is I will reprimand them in an e-mail and then cc the whole office so everyone gets the point.

Hate interoffice politics and stupid pettiness. Do your damn job and stop making others' lives harder. ~___~

 

[thecouncil]

If I receive an email that doesn't cc my boss, I cc him on the reply.

 

[HeySeuss]

I do this but only for employees that never do what they are asked or if they are a problematic employee that is a discipline problem or tries to skate on loopholes.

Not only that, but if they aren't the most computer savvy person, I've seen people that never delete emails and have them sorted by sender instead of date so they never see what gets sent. Or don't check their emails but once a week.

There's a many reasons why someone would do this but it's usually more telling oftthe recipient than the sender.

 

[BumbleB]

I just call them out. I told one guy that there was no need to copy my team/boss on every email. He said, "Oh yes there is." and I told him, "Oh no there isn't, and included my boss telling me to tell him that he shouldn't do it."

He never apologized, but he did stop doing it.

 

[Despera]

I did this once cuz this dude ignored my e-mails and phone calls, and I sure as all hell won't miss the deadline because of him. CCing the boss did its magic and there was no delay.

In some cases it's justified. But in OP's case, that guy is a douche.

 

[emb]

My boss asks to be included on emails I exchange with the client. I think it's reasonable, since she's in charge of managing the project, it would help for her to know what's going on.

It is a little irksome to notice the client going out of the way to include my boss on emails describing a problem with something I've worked on (but not on other, neutral or positive emails). I would have copied it on up anyway, so not a big deal.

 

[Jackben]

I just call them out. I told one guy that there was no need to copy my team/boss on every email. He said, "Oh yes there is." and I told him, "Oh no there isn't, and included my boss telling me to tell him that he shouldn't do it."

He never apologized, but he did stop doing it.

That's typical of the kind of weaseling shitbrain that would do something unnecessarily passive-aggressive like that in the first place. But good on you for calling him out.

 

[OriginofHysteria]

Its actually saved my ass a couple times lol.

 

[backflip10019]

I do this sometimes when people aren't doing what they're supposed to be in a sufficient manner of time. You must be slippin', OP.

 

[BolognaOni]

Having the world's most passive aggressive grandmother has pretty much inoculated me against this kind of stuff. I really just find it humorous.

Then again, this is like the oldest email trick in the book, and at my current job I'm 100% sure my boss would not be fooled. If you're worried that your boss might be, I'd say try to find a better one.

 

[tmarques]

Boss is probably annoyed when passive-agressive teacher's pet wastes his time like this.

 

[Zhengi]

I hate those people too, op. It's worse for us cause our boss is a push over and gets rolled by everyone outside the department. This is so bad for morale in the office because we feel like he doesn't have our back.

 

[Banjo-Kazooie]

I sometimes resort to that if the person I'm emailing hasn't responded to my various inquiries.

 

[Septimus Prime]

I only copy peoples bosses under three scenarios:

1. He was referenced in the message body
2. The recipient has burned the bridge of "I trust you to pay attention when you're not being watched" - You have once chance to get this right with me
3. At one point in the past, the actual boss said to copy him/her on everything. People sometimes forget this point because its a strange request

I actually do ask my guys to CC me on pretty much everything. It's not so I can be a dick or "whip cracker" or whatever, but rather so that I know what's going on and can step in when I need to (say, for example, a client complains about something that isn't my guy's fault or if a client asks my guys for something they don't handle, like billing). Sometimes it's just policy, and I actually get more annoyed when people just reply to one person and kill the CC chain.

At a previous company, I had a scummy boss who wanted me to send things just to him. He would then take my emails, remove my name from them, and then send them out as if he wrote them (I only got to take responsibility for bad things). Once I found out about that, I started making my emails uneditable PDFs, and you bet your ass I CCed everyone.

 

[NullPointer]

There is a reason.

Yep. There is always a reason.

 

[dskillzhtown]

I sometimes resort to that if the person I'm emailing hasn't responded to my various inquiries.

Same, but I think the OP is referring to people who do it on every single email. It sucks if you are just trying to get your work done and others see you as someone they can "take down" to look better. Politics and all that crap at the office sucks. Just do your job, I do mine and we will get along fine.

The best way to combat all that bullshit is to over communicate with your boss. Let he/she know everything that is going on, including your concerns. That way if something comes up your boss can have your back.

 

[HiResDes]

Ever run into these clowns?

Every time this guy asks me to do something via email, he copies my boss on it and says something like, "We need to make sure this is done on time."

It would be one thing if I habitually fucked up/ignored him on a consistent basis, but I always get things done on time/early.

Even worse is when they cc your boss after deleting a majority/all of an email chain showing everything you've done so far making it look like you've done nothing.

Dammit.

Happens to me as well. My immediate boss screwed up the scheduling once and I caught her mistake emailed her back and still got in trouble because I forgot to cc the department superior.

 

[baunsgaard]

Only one reason for CC'ing my boss: CMA (Cover My Ass)

 

[ronito]

I only cc bosses on emails as threats. You threaten too often it means nothing.

 

[aett]

God, I hate the boss cc. Fortunately, at my current job, on the occasion when this happens people tend to cc my office's actual boss as opposed to my direct supervisor. The boss is too busy to care and she usually deletes the stuff because she knows I can handle everything.

On the rare occasion that my supervisor gets cc'd, he usually doesn't even see the email until he has a slow day, which can be days or even weeks later. Then he'll email me asking "did this get done?" and I have to try and remember what it was about because I took care of it and promptly stopped thinking about it.

 

[Vinci]

When they do this, just include the entire email string, and highlight what they deleted. Relevant items to the discussion are well and good, but pointing out that they're attempting to blur the facts to your boss will not end well for them.

This is what I do. It's glorious.

 

[thefro]

I only CC when they don't respond to my first & second e-mail or it's a big issue that needs fixed ASAP and they have been historically unresponsive to me in the past.

It is pretty amazing how fast people respond (at my company anyway), once you play that card.

 

[MedIC86]

I only do this with people who are notoriously lazy/slacking/bad on the job.

 

[Rad-]

I do this with almost everyone. It's just there to make sure the task gets done. When I ask something to be done, it needs to be done. Nothing annoys me more than having to ask twice.

 

[Gully State]

The worst are those stupid receipts on outlook. Our HR person especially likes to do this for every. single. freakin. email. I've had to turned that shit off.

 

[Deified Data]

Ever run into these clowns?

Every time this guy asks me to do something via email, he copies my boss on it and says something like, "We need to make sure this is done on time."

It would be one thing if I habitually fucked up/ignored him on a consistent basis, but I always get things done on time/early.

Even worse is when they cc your boss after deleting a majority/all of an email chain showing everything you've done so far making it look like you've done nothing.

Dammit.

I'd do the same thing if I were delegating - if something doesn't get done I want it known that I passed on the message where it needed to go. Try not to take it personally. If I did such a thing I'd be doing it to cover my own ass, not to make you feel scrutinized.

If this guy is intentionally changing email chains specifically to make you look bad then that's definitely scummy. That said I've been known to chop down chains to the last couple pertinent messages if only to keep things organized. If I'm replying to something I don't want the recipient to have to sift through loads of exchanges in order to find what I'm referring to.

I can certainly imagine how this behavior can come off as passive-aggressive, but it doesn't necessarily have to be that way.

 

[The Albatross]

Another version of this is ...

So, I work in creative services and we get requests from "the business" side of the company, ie, usually other people in marketing who arein't in CS (our CS team is, 50, 60 people). And so we manage our own projects with "the business," but often times, we have conversations over email to each other in creative services about a project for the business side. So, I will have a Q for editorial, who will have a Q for visual design, who will have a Q for me, and so on. A long string. Things can get said in these strings that people might not want shared with "the business." Nothing bad, but maybe an expression of discontent over ANOTHER revision or ANOTHER enhancement or something. 99% of people know to keep emails and conversations between CS members, and then when you have to reach out to the business for clarification, you write a new email.

Well. 1% of people don't get this and they are notorious for forwarding an extensively long thread with something like "please review" to the business site, looking for feedback.

There is one idiot who does this, everybody hates her, and it drives everyone nuts. Now, nobody writes anything too bad, but SOMETIMES you want to share some comraderie with another person working on a project so you say something like "Hey Jim... sorry but barry sent this last minute email and needs X Y Z ... Let me know if you have time to work on it today, ugh.." And then when this email exchange bounces around 10 times, and idiot mouth breather forwards that WHOLE string... it's infuriating. I've told her about this and she's just completely deaf to it. I think she might have some social hangups or something.

 

[NH Apache]

Had a guy edit what I had previously written in an email chain so it would seem that he didn't come off as wrong as he did.

That was really stupid of him; it was really easy for me to show what had actually transpired and his ass got cooked by his boss.

Some people.

 

[Karak]

I only copy peoples bosses under three scenarios:

1. He was referenced in the message body
2. The recipient has burned the bridge of "I trust you to pay attention when you're not being watched" - You have once chance to get this right with me
3. At one point in the past, the actual boss said to copy him/her on everything. People sometimes forget this point because its a strange request

There is an insane amount of number 3's out there.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

Cc their spouse on the reply.

 

[GungHo]

I've actually written up people for excessive CCing, especially when it led to them over-disclosing proprietary shit.

 

[codhand]

Holy fuck balls, this thread was made for me! Huge pet peeve, happens to me regularly. some real passive aggressive office monkey shit as previously stated.

 

[badcrumble]

I've lost jobs because I'm more of the keep-my-head-down-and-get-my-shit-done type than someone who knows how to play the office politics game. Topics like this really bum me out.

 

[Sydle]

I do this when people aren't responding in an appropriate way.

Why don't you just ask how you can help him/her out better? You might learn something and it won't put them on the defensive.

 

[Disagree Guy]

I only CC someone's boss into an email if they flat our refuse to reply to repeated emails of mine and/or refuse to do their job. (inb4 pls respond)

I work with someone that is on my 'level' hierachy wise and she CC's my boss into emails when I have made some menial error that could easily be rectified by literally talking across the desk at me. That shit makes me want to throw in the towel.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

I'd do the same thing if I were delegating - if something doesn't get done I want it known that I passed on the message where it needed to go. Try not to take it personally. If I did such a thing I'd be doing it to cover my own ass, not to make you feel scrutinized.

I can certainly imagine how this behavior can come off as passive-aggressive, but it doesn't necessarily have to be that way.

I get what you're saying but this guy is not my superior and is a known dickhead.

 

[elrechazado]

I cc people's boss when I'm praising their work

 

[NullPointer]

The thing is, its probably a very good idea to write your work emails as if they're all being cc'd to your boss.

 

[Casimir]

CCing people's leads/bosses is pretty common thing in my office. Unless they're directly addressed, they pretty much ignore them.

What drives me crazy is I have a coworker who starts new email chains all the time for no reason. Then uses this to her advantage by saying she didn't see my email requesting her to do something because I responded to one of her fringe chains she started.

Send her a direct email and CC her boss.

 

[FStop7]

Ever run into these clowns?

Every time this guy asks me to do something via email, he copies my boss on it and says something like, "We need to make sure this is done on time."

It would be one thing if I habitually fucked up/ignored him on a consistent basis, but I always get things done on time/early.

Even worse is when they cc your boss after deleting a majority/all of an email chain showing everything you've done so far making it look like you've done nothing.

Dammit.

Haha, I think every company has That Guy.