When is it critical to CC people not directly addressed in an e-mail (or not directly concerned with the subject)? [closed]

Question

My company has no direct policy about this and we generally have an informal way of communicating, especially within teams. Between teams, I have seen varying behaviors in the past 12 months I am here - from only writing directly, to CC'ing the entire department, or even superiors - in all cases people who are completely unrelated to the subject of the e-mail.

Being both on the receiving end and sending end of e-mails, I generally find it uncomfortable to CC people who are not related (or when people writing to me CC others in my team e.g. my boss or the entire department), as it seems to signal lack of trust. Generally, it also makes the e-mails less personal, which I feel doesn't help if we work in an informal environment where bonding and open communication is imperative to teamwork.

My current practice is that if it is somehow indirectly related to others, I CC' the whole team, but when one person replies, I write all follow up e-mails only to that person.

This all goes down to building a relationship with the person I am working with, making a joke or two, communicating one to one.

In what kind of situations is it critical to CC people even if they are not related? When is it acceptable not to CC the team or the supervisor of someone I am writing to?

Since we don't have a policy on this, let me know what would be most professional but also instrumental to building good communication.

Answer 1

This varies greatly from organization to organization. The person you should be asking this to is your direct manager. That is the person who assesses your work and is responsible for giving you guidelines.

There is a tendency in many organizations, as you note, to CC unnecessarily. A professional approach would be to avoid inundating people's inboxes with stuff they don't need to read. I also find it is best to not include people in discussion emails when they only need to know the final decision, because they may not read the whole string and could end up with partial (and therefore possibly incorrect) information.

When is it critical to CC?

• when you need a witness to a conversation
• when you need to time stamp your efforts
• when your reputation is at stake
• when management needs to know
• when deadlines are looming and others may need to be prepared to jump in and help
• when you need buy-in
• when other people's decisions may be affected by the work being discussed

Answer 2

One simple rule, if you have absolutely no clue about your corporate culture, is not to change the cc list without a very good reason. This means don't add people, but it also means don't drop people. I have customers I work with who appear unaware of the Reply-All function, requiring us to forward things around that everyone needs to see. We would have all seen them if the customer had use Reply-All.

Once a chain has started, if you add or drop anyone you should start your email with a note like:

Dropping A and B since this is just about scheduling the order of tasks on Tuesday

or

Adding A since this will need support from X.

or

Moving A to bcc

(This last one means that A will see this email, but subsequent Reply-All will not include A. It's a common approach in many large companies and lets A speak up and say "actually I want to still be included in this conversation" if need be.)

Even if someone replies to you and you decide to continue the conversation with that person only, include a line saying so and perhaps why.

If you're starting the email then you have a harder task. You may have reasons to include or exclude people, but understand your audience will think your reasons are:

• as a heads-up about what is going on around them
• to show off that you have achieved something (eg when telling a client everything is done and ready, cc-ing your boss is expected)
• because they need to know
• to make sure a complaint about a coworker reaches the right audience
• so that later you can say "but I told you about it!" when the stuff hits the fan

Your motivations may always be pure and generous, but they won't always be interpreted that way. Failing to cc people can be seen as an attempt to fly under the radar, go around the authorities and processes, or try to sneak something past others. You can't win. When starting a new email chain, take a moment to ask your boss or a senior colleague you trust who should be cc'ed on it. Eventually you will learn the rules for your company.

One last tip: if you want any particular action to be taken by anyone, make sure they are on the To line, not the CC line. Many people take CCs as information only and will read them when they have a chance. Drag people up to To as an extra reinforcement that there is action for them in the email.