Employee CC's entire 40-person team on every email per his manager's request, clogging everyone's inbox: 'I was just following the policy he set'

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  • An employee sits at a desk while his manager looks over his shoulder.
  • My manager told me to "always CC the whole team" on emails. So I did.

    I work in a mid-sized logistics company, maybe 40 people in the office. My manager Greg has this thing where he hates being left out of conversations.
  • About three months ago after some miscommunication on a project, he sent a company-wide message saying, and I quote: "going forward, everyone should CC the entire team on any work-related email so we're all on the same page." No exceptions listed, no clarification on what "work- related" meant.
  • Just that. I even replied asking if he meant only project updates or literally everything, and he wrote back "everything, it's not that complicated." Okay Greg.
  • So I started doing exactly that. Every email. The one to IT asking them to reset my password - entire team CCd.
  • The one to the office manager asking if we had - more printer paper 40 people notified.
  • My reply to a vendor confirming a delivery window on a Tuesday afternoon - all 40 people got that one too.
  • An employee opens their email on an iPad to 38 unread messages.
  • Within about a week and a half the team groupchat (which Greg is also in) started filling up with people asking why they were getting emails about staplers and parking spot requests.
  • Greg pulled me into a meeting and told me I was "clogging up everyone's inbox on purpose." I very calmly pulled out my phone, showed him his original message, and said I was just following the policy he set.
  • He stared at it for a good five seconds. The new updated policy came out two days later.
  • Side view of an employee scrolling through their email on an iPad.
  • It now has four bullet points specifying exactly which types of emails require team visibility. You're welcome, Greg.
  • exeterdragon My logistics experience also involved CCing dozens of people, both my teams and any brokerage teams handling the clearance of specific products or needing to know about deliveries.
  • People really thought they understood how I did my job. because they saw how many emails I sent a day, they didn't understand my problem-solving logic
  • though, and didn't see how I organized myself, so if I was away things would turn into a mess but everyone thought they were caught up.
  • EWCEY . I'm surprised Greg thinks emails are the most efficient way to track requests. Something tells me Greg has lots of great ideas.

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