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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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Apr 8, 2026 8:00 AM EDT

This employee may have known exactly what he was doing, but that's the only way he was going to prove his point to his hot-headed manager.

Sometimes, your manager is not going to believe you when you tell them that their directive has not been fully considered. If you have a decent boss, they will hear your concern and go back to the drawing board to find a better solution. However, if your manager is like the one this author had the unfortunate experience of working for, then you might have a problem confronting them.

In that case, the only way to truly get through to them that their idea was, well, a bad one is to show, not tell. If they have no desire to listen to your protestations beforehand, then they don't deserve the luxury of an advanced warning. This author chose to comply with his manager's demands by copying their entire 40-person team on every single email. Let's just say that the vast majority of these emails did not need to be publicized to everyone.

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  • An employee sits at a desk while his manager looks over his shoulder.
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    An employee sits at a desk while his manager looks over his shoulder.

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 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.
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  • 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.
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  • 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.
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  • So I started doing exactly that. Every email. The one to IT asking them to reset my password - entire team CCd.
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  • The one to the office manager asking if we had - more printer paper 40 people notified.
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  • My reply to a vendor confirming a delivery window on a Tuesday afternoon - all 40 people got that one too.
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  • An employee opens their email on an iPad to 38 unread messages.
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    An employee opens their email on an iPad to 38 unread messages.

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Hey, this is what the big boss asked for! He wanted full transparency so that no information got lost in translation, but he underestimated that when you direct a team member to notify everyone about everything, complying with said orders might actually make more people upset, thereby defeating the purpose of the entire exercise.

    Wasn't the whole idea to keep everyone in the loop? Shouldn't that be a desirable goal? Sure, but when you're spamming someone's inbox, chances are more information is going to get lost in the shuffle, not less. Therefore, fewer people will be on the same page and will now have dozens, if not hundreds, of emails to sift through every day when they should be using that time to do their actual jobs instead.

    We often joke about meetings that should be emails, but let's not forget that sifting through unnecessary emails is also a waste of time. Let's send our emails wisely, people! 

  • 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.
    via Vertex404_Signal
  • 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.
    via Vertex404_Signal
  • He stared at it for a good five seconds. The new updated policy came out two days later.
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  • Side view of an employee scrolling through their email on an iPad.
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    Side view of an employee scrolling through their email on an iPad.

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • It now has four bullet points specifying exactly which types of emails require team visibility. You're welcome, Greg.
    via Vertex404_Signal
  • 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.
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  • 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
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  • 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.
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  • EWCEY . I'm surprised Greg thinks emails are the most efficient way to track requests. Something tells me Greg has lots of great ideas.
    via Vertex404_Signal

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workplace-stories employee manager coworkers emails Horrible Bosses funny work stories
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