CC'ing the Boss on Email Makes Employees Feel Less Trusted, Study Finds (hbr.org) 148
Do you ever loop your boss when having a conversation with a colleague when his or her presence in the thread wasn't really necessary? Turns out, many people do this, and your colleague doesn't find it helpful at all. From an article: My collaborators and I conducted a series of six studies (a combination of experiments and surveys) to see how cc'ing influences organizational trust. While our findings are preliminary and our academic paper is still under review, a first important finding was that the more often you include a supervisor on emails to coworkers, the less trusted those coworkers feel (alternative link). In our experimental studies, in which 594 working adults participated, people read a scenario where they had to imagine that their coworker always, sometimes, or almost never copied the supervisor when emailing them. Participants were then required to respond to items assessing how trusted they would feel by their colleague. ("In this work situation, I would feel that my colleague would trust my 'competence,' 'integrity,' and 'benevolence.'") It was consistently shown that the condition in which the supervisor was "always" included by cc made the recipient of the email feel trusted significantly less than recipients who were randomly allocated to the "sometimes" or "almost never" condition. Organizational surveys of 345 employees replicated this effect by demonstrating that the more often employees perceived that a coworker copied their supervisor, the less they felt trusted by that coworker. To make matters worse, my findings indicated that when the supervisor was copied in often, employees felt less trusted, and this feeling automatically led them to infer that the organizational culture must be low in trust overall, fostering a culture of fear and low psychological safety.
I BCC the entire company... (Score:5, Funny)
haha! suck it paranoid bastards!
How Khan Academy handles email transparency (Score:5, Interesting)
http://bjk5.com/post/718871964... [bjk5.com] ... Anybody in the org can join any of these email lists. analytics-team@ is usually just team members, but analytics-blackhole@ has all sorts of lookie-loo subscribers who're interested in analytics happenings."
"Every team has two email addresses: one for team members and one for the team's "blackhole." [For example: ] analytics-team@khanacademy.org and analytics-blackhole@khanacademy.org.
The -team@ address is for emailing all members of the team. When you send email to analytics-team@, you expect everyone on the analytics team to read it. Subscribing to analytics-team@ means analytics-related email will land in your priority inbox as soon as it's sent, and you're expected to read it.
The -blackhole@ address is for anything else that has anything to do with analytics. When you CC:analytics-blackhole@, you don't expect subscribers to immediately read it. Subscribing to analytics-blackhole@ means you'll receive analytics-related email, but it'll get filtered out of your inbox and you're not expected to read it unless you feel like it.
The approach was derived from how Stripe does it: https://stripe.com/blog/email-... [stripe.com]
So, given the original story, maybe this transparency approach has an extra side effect (perhaps unintended) of maintaining trust in an organization by avoiding the "directly CC-ing the boss" effect?
It's not quite BCCing the whole company -- like Tesen joked -- as it is more organized. But essentially the whole company could in theory read (almost) anything with that approach.
Number One Rule... (Score:4, Insightful)
...never let your boss get blindsided by anything you are even remotely related to if you can help it.
If you have information, reservations, disagreements with anyone, co-workers, customers, no matter, loop your boss in on it. The Boss is there to coordinate and clear obstacles so that you can do your job and so the company can achieve its goals (at least in a healthy, sane organization).
There are always two sides at least to everything and each "side" will go up the other chain of command. If you don't keep your management involved, they will look like fools when asked about it in their meetings and they have no knowledge or response. That will then come back to you.
If your colleagues are professionals, they will understand and will do it themselves.
Fighting words (Score:4, Insightful)
Do you ever loop your boss when having a conversation with a colleague when his or her presence in the thread wasn't really necessary?
Them's fighting words!
Re:Fighting words (Score:5, Insightful)
Turns out, many people do this, and your colleague doesn't find it helpful at all.
Hey Colleague! I'm not CC'ing the boss to help you out.
Re:Fighting words (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Fighting words (Score:5, Insightful)
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Anytime I've been on a questionable CC of any boss I quietly and discreetly ask the sender (out of band, verbal if possible) why the boss was CC'd, prompting with is it a CYA thing, or is there a reason you need to look like you're applying extra pressure?
At least 80% of the time it's more about that person maintaining visibility to their boss that they're working (over there) than it is about trying to apply pressure to me or my team.
Now, this discounts all the times I already know why the boss was copied,
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I do have a direct report that just does not do what I say. I just want a weekly status report, and it never arrives. After a late project I wanted a daily status because the director keeps asking me at random times what the status is, and so I cc the boss as proof that I have asked for the status and so that the boss can indeed apply pressure. It's sort of a way of handing the boss some proof that I'm not being listened to.
The cc is also backup support for when I'm dealing with a person outside of the gro
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It would make more sense to mail the boss in such cases, or reply to your coworker and add the boss to the list of recipients, and adress him/her directly with two or threesentences and the question how to proceede.
In teams where I have a leading role, all mails where I am on CC only, get filtered into a seperate mail folder. The chance that I ever read them is basically zero.
I go over such mails, before a meeting, to catch up what went on last days/weeks.
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I've rarely done this, but when I did I definitelly wanted to send the message that the worker is not just playing games with me alone. And this was a next-to-last resort, I had already talked to the boss privately, the boss talked to the worker privately, etc.
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Yup, I feel I'm spending too much time sweeping up messes that could have been fixed by having some conversations weeks earlier. I'd much rather hear someone say that they might be late than for them to actually be late at the same time that I'm telling my boss that everything is going smoothly. I'd much rather critique in a design review than to find out in the code review that everything is done wrong, and yet the latter seems to happen more often. I have a few people that never send me ask questions in e
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Turns out, many people do this, and your colleague doesn't find it helpful at all.
Hey Colleague! I'm not CC'ing the boss to help you out.
This.
Lets face facts... You're doing it because you're an arsehole who thinks that name dropping and going over someone's head will get you anywhere... And the level of smug I generate when it backfires has put me on an EPA watchlist... And it always backfires.
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I find I have to do it to appeal to authority. My worker is ignoring me, so I cc the boss, and suddenly the work starts. It also helps with emails to project managers and the like who may be badgering me about something and when I cc the boss they become more polite. I also sometimes do this as a way of saying "see, I told you this guy was nuts, here's proof".
What if they didn't know? (Score:2)
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By the time you have to CC the boss about coworkers BCC usually works better.
It's not like this was the first time. What you want is for him/her to do his/her usual bullshit, but for all to see.
The fact that I'm CCing the boss says: 'I don't trust you' not 'you should feel less trusted'.
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Yeah, it's more about the sender covering their arse. It's one of the reasons I left my last employer.
That, and the practice of my boss' boss copying his boss in the CC, and using read receipts, and getting pissed off when people used the "don't send the read receipt" function in Outlook. Being management, his inbox limit was....large.....so he had a sub-folder for each and every employee he dealt with, above and below him, and a processing rule that put the read receipts into the employee's sub-folder, i.e
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Then the boss replies-all, revealing that they were secretly included in the message, and the level of paranoia skyrockets.
Squeaky wheel syndrome (Score:2)
... and I might provide some light entertainment for the boss.
Duh (Score:2)
That's the point... (Score:5, Insightful)
That's often kind of the point isn't it?
You don't trust someone to do their job, possibly they've been screwing around or taking their sweet time.
A swift CC to the boss and a "hey, what's the progress on this?" is one way to get it moving.
On the other hand, doing it all the time is poor form if it's really a one to one conversation where escalation isn't needed.
Re:That's the point... (Score:5, Insightful)
"...more often you include a supervisor on emails to coworkers, the less trusted those coworkers feel..."
It's probable that the author has reversed the causality - it's the less trusted coworkers who more often find bosses cc:'d on emails.
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When you're working 20 hours a day, 7 days a week, what do you do? If you can't trust the coworker to do the work, he needs to go and be replaced with someone who is going to share the workload with you. This is your job, it's the means by which you feed yourself and your family, it's not yearbook club. Deadbeats can't just hang out, they're soaking up resources that someone else may better utilize.
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Probably I could do those things myself, but hey, they are responsible for it so I have to go through them.
If after a couple of days nothing seems to be moving, it's time for some cc's.
As for coworkers that you can't trust doing a good job, I'd rather do the job myself than delegating it. Yes, they should be let go, but if management ignores the issue there i
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If I'm CC'ing him, we're well past the point where I don't trust things to be going as smoothly as they should.
Exactly. If you're to the point where you need to CC an authority that doesn't need to be there, you are deliberately conveying a MESSAGE that the recipient is untrusted to complete a task or whatever.
There are other situations where it's just routine to CC a supervisor. If you get worried about those, you're just paranoid.
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Doing it at all is going to make you enemies in a hurry.
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So much this! I don't CC: the boss the first time around. If I have to do it, it's to let you know I'm no longer the only one waiting for you to get your ass in gear.
I'd hate to have someone do it all the time, though. Similarly putting "request read receipt" on emails. Sometimes necessary, but doing it all the time will get you hated with a passion.
Email = Billboard (Score:1)
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Considering how often someone accidentally hits "Reply All", that assumption is accurate.
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In my experience and of what I have observed with others, those who talk with their bosses or otherwise keep them informed about what they do at work often have more opportunity for advancement at work. Two people can do the exact same thing, but the one that talks about the process and the milestones and keeps the boss informed of these will get recognition, the other one will not.
You can call that shitty management if you want, but you are responsible for protecting your own interest, and arguably you ar
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I believe that falls under the heading of "Managing your manager".
But, keeping your boss up to date and informed is a different (though not quite orthogonal) issue to CC'ing in the boss on what are normally 1:1 emails.
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The boss has a need to know what you're doing. This is not an optional thing. Keeping the boss informed is a necessary part of the job. This is easy to do: speak up during meetings, tell the truth during scrums, send the weekly status reports. It's when the boss ends up not know what a particular worker is doing that things start falling apart. The boss is going to be asked by all the other bosses up the chain of command about what is going on and needs to answer.
So let's say the boss has no idea that you'r
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Fuck off with your feelings. This is a business, not gender studies class.
To: Bob in HR
CC: TheBoss
Subject: Sensitivity Training
Hi Bob,
I'd like to bring to your attention that Sam in Accounting is a blatant misogynist, can we please address this?
Thank you
Re: (Score:2)
To: Whiners.
'Genders studies' classes have nothing to do with misogyny or the real world in any way. Fuck your feelings too.
Issue addressed.
Thank you
The boss.
Re:Duh (Score:5, Interesting)
Funny aside (names obviously changed)
Had a co worker Bob L Smith his email was bob.l.smith@
HR Legal had a Bob L Smith who was bob.smith@
My co-worker got so many of these emails it was sad. He actually ended up having to go through HRLegal confidentiality training as that was the only legal way he could receive these e-mails, which he would then FWD and cc back the sender.
Among the interesting ones:
* co-workers were dating, caught in conference room gettin it on.
* porno (with one of the admins co-staring) being shown in conf room on projector at lunch; said admin was *not* part of the group watching.
* boss punched subordinate in face in meeting that got very heated, subordinate proceeded to joint lock boss, tear shoulder, and choke him out with a rear naked choke.
mind blowing, and made my dept. feel rather boring.
Re:Duh (Score:5, Funny)
The fact that you listed those interesting cases indicates that the "HR Legal confidentiality training" didn't work.
Devils in the Details (Score:2)
Is what my lawyer father always told me...
In this case if he got those emails and disseminated the information to networkBoy *prior* to receiving HRLegal confidentiality training I'd argue it was of no fault of his own! :p
Re: (Score:2)
Which in fact was the case, and why I don't know the resolution to said cases...
The first two are fairly obvious outcomes, but that last doosie...
*man* I want to know how that turned out.
Of course another possibility is that the training was fine, but I'm a snoopy BOFH and I read his email via wireshark and hub connected between his computer and the corp LAN...
Bad metrics (Score:3)
If metrics are poor, cc'ng the boss is the only way he will know what you are working on.
From the land of duh? (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course, it isn't meant to make them feel trusted.
99% of the time I cc' my boss it's because the co-worker is trying to get me involved in something I shouldn't be, or make a "end-round" my boss.
I don't have time for that shit.
Yep (Score:2)
>"Do you ever loop your boss when having a conversation with a colleague when his or her presence in the thread wasn't really necessary?"
Yes. It is rare, but does happen. And when it does, I usually will ignore the Email and delete it. It is usually when another Director/VP thinks it will motivate me to do something, and I quietly illustrate to them it has the exact opposite effect. If they later ask me about the Email, I will say something like "well, looked like you were trying to talk to the CEO a
Re: (Score:2)
So by doing the exact opposite of being motivated, how does that help your career advancement?
Escalate! (Score:4)
2. If there is no response, the second email has the other person's supervisor CC'd.
3. If there is still no response, the supervisor's supervisor is CC'd
4. Repeat until desired results achieved, or reprimanded. (I've yet to be reprimanded).
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Holy fuck what an asshole. I'm guessing these are all in the span of half an hour too. I hope never work with you =)
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Heh, that approach doesn't get very far with me. Emails are prioritized by me based on how many top priority tasks I have, followed by how much I like the person requesting, followed by how easy the task is. Someone who does that very quickly gets the "I'm sorry you must submit a ticket for that" cold shoulder. The officially published SLA is 2 weeks for my group's ticket queue.
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The official policy is that all work goes through tickets. As in, we are not following the proper procedure when we directly work off of an email/email chain. The type of person who whines to middle management when their email is ignored is most certainly going to bring attention to work done outside of the approved channels if we accommodate them (as in, if we do something nice once, they'll expect it every time and complain all the way to the top when we don't, at which point we'll get yelled at for hav
Sometimes it's not about trust. (Score:1)
Wrong perspective (Score:4, Interesting)
My boss gives me the freedom to handle clients as needed. He requests being kept in the loop for some of the more wealthy clients, but honestly I cc him most email correspondence.
CC'ing my boss ensures that my boss sees the ridiculousness from clients I have to deal with everyday.
My email etiquette (Score:4, Interesting)
As A Recipient (Score:2)
The author of an email that cc's their boss should be more worried about the boss's perception than whether the coworker feels less trusted. Copying the boss on an email is often an attempt to create a CYA moment with, "Well, I told you about it," or a passive-aggressive way to tell on a co-worker without taking responsibility or a way of telling a co-worker, "You better do what I'm asking or mommy/daddy are going to come after you."
I used to get copied on stuff all the time and finally told those reporting
If I CC your boss (Score:2)
If I write you an email and Cc your boss, then you have done something that I believe needs to be corrected.
You are right to feel less trusted, that is exactly what I am attempting to communicate.
This never ends well... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
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If you feel the need to repost shit every time.
This is the first time I wrote about cc'ing the supervisor. Yes, a new story relevant to topic. Miracles and wonders abound.
How's that 1500 calorie diet? Still at 350 pounds years later?
The analog weight scales at the gym are no longer "thunking" at 350 pounds. One scale says I'm 334 pounds and the other one won't settle between 325 and 350 pounds. I got a 400-pound digital scale [amzn.to] on order from Amazon. Otherwise, the 1,500 calorie per day diet is going fine.
Set any new power lifting records?
My power lifting days were 10+ years ago.
Re: (Score:2)
Sounds like a serious math problem in counting "servings." I recommend buying a kitchen scale.
My portions are correct for a 1,500-calorie diet. You're assuming that I should be able to lose weight if I'm eating less than the recommended 2,000 calories per day. A recent fat study of the 2009 Biggest Losers contestant showed that they had a slower metabolism that never returned to normal (one contestant's metabolism required 800 fewer calories) and gained weight on the recommended 2,000-calorie diet. It's possible that my metabolism requires less calories than I'm currently eating.
https://www.nytimes [nytimes.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Another argument for BCC.
Duh (Score:3)
From the Web (Score:2)
Makes perfect sense. (Score:2)
One of the reasons you CC someone up the food chain is because you don't trust the person you're sending the email to to do their job.
In other news (Score:2)
Always switch the boss to BCC before replying. (Score:2)
Trust (Score:2)
I would rather that I feel trust than you feel trusted, but that's a feeling only you can create by acting in a trustworthy manner and inviting accountability. I welcome the boss being CC'ed on all emails to me if it makes someone feel better about me.
Objective: Goal (Score:2)
Peopleware book on team spirit & also "e(vil)m (Score:3)
"Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams" explains how supporting true team spirit is a key aspect of a high-performance organization. You can find some good evidence in there for your point.
The authors also explain better ways to manage email. Here are subheadings from the book chapter:
Chapter 33: E(vil) Mail 199
In Days of Yore 199
Corporate Spam 200
What Does "FYI" Even Mean? 200
Is This an Open Organization or a Commune? 201
Repeal Passive Consent 201
Building a Spam-less Self-Coordinating Organization 202
I
The ONLY time ... (Score:2)
... I ever CC'd the boss was like:
To: asshole@suckycompany.com
From: Me
Subject: Your stuff still doesn't work ...
I know that you want to make my firm happy, and you know I do too.
So far, I'm the only one making any positive contributions, which results in your company's performance sucking big time.
Because you are incompetent, I am CC'ing my boss, your boss, and, to get the point across I'm CC'ing YOU.
Please fix this before end of work day Friday or I will be scheduling a meeting with you, me, my boss, and y
but they want the cc (Score:2)
you know... (Score:4)
I CC the boss when I want their attention (Score:2)
Boss mail (Score:2)
I hate having my boss looped in, because then he wants what I'm doing. I tell him, and even if it's exactly the same thing he told me to do last time, I get told "that's not what I want" and then ... it goes down hill. Despite the fact I love working for my boss, despite the fact I love working for this company, I decided earlier today that "it's time to move on". I've been in IT for multiple decades. I don't have any sort of diva pride - I just want to do the job my boss wants me to do, the way he wants it
Two separate things here (Score:2)
CCing the boss to indicate approval (Score:2)
I haven't seen anyone mention this, but I will typically CC the boss if I'm asking for something that should be questioned. For example, if I'm asking for access to a system or application managed by a different team, or card access to a new building, or creation of a new vlan. Usually simply CC'ing the boss is enough to bypass any questions, but in case they do ask "is there approval for this" the boss is already on the chain to say "yes".
And in other news... (Score:2)
Researchers found phase transition of H2O at 0 C (Score:3)
Researchers found out that H2O, commonly known as "Water", surprisingly undergoes a phase transition at zero degrees Celsius under normal atmospheric pressure.
The paper is still under review, but our experimental studies on 594 samples of the substance found that liquid H2O becomes solid when cooled below this temperature. The presence of the solid state was confirmed by probing (poking) the substance with a sophisticated testing device (finger).
By testing with different temperature ranges, including randomized temperatures, it was confirmed that the transition happens at or close to zero degrees Celsius.
This reprehensible activity had to be studied? (Score:2)
Seriously. Nobody knew this?
I'll go a step further: You're no longer exchanging a view, you are tacitly indicating that the correspondance is now one way: "me (and the boss) to you". Cc'ing any senior means you are at best a 'toady' sucking up to the senior or a 'bully' using the senior's e-presence to quell any discussion.
The action also has side effects. It can clog a senior's inbox losing useful correspondance in the 'noise' of all the frivolous Cc's.
I see no problem with CC (Score:2)
It's SOP with my current boss. I CC him on all of my stuff to keep him in the loop. My previous boss didn't have that policy. And, when I CCd her, it was usually because things weren't getting done, and she could light a much hotter fire under that person's butt than I could.
Well DUH (Score:2)
Unless it is a status email or email where the party I'm emailing knows the info has to go to the boss (as he may want say) I don't CC, but frankly over the years, I've done this when, frankly I _DON'T_ trust the person!
I've had more than one situation over the gasp 40 YEARS I've been working where you'd tell coworker X, and they would deny you did, and you'd have to jump through hoops to make your manager (and sometimes their manager) believe you
The problem is often solved by "CC:Their Manager, Your Manage
Explains a lot (Score:2)
I do this a lot actually.
Its very rare that I do this because I want the boss person to get involved. I do to keep them from swinging by my office and interrupting whatever I'm doing so they can ask how that particular activity is going (at which point I have to dig up that exact email to refresh my own memory). It also keeps them happier with me, which in the long run keeps me happier.
If I want them to *participate*, I'll add them on the recipient list, not the cc's.
obvious (Score:2)
Is this from the department "open doors"?
Re: (Score:3)
Or, if you are asking a peer who you do not manage and has his own tasks, to do something you ask, you CC the boss who will resolve priorities. Or, if you talked to the boss and he asked you to ask peer to do said thing, you CC the boss. Generally I expect the boss to be controlling resources and managing priorities, he really ought to be copied on a lot of mails. If that peer is doing exceptional work that he doesn't even have to do, CC'ing the boss is also the way of making sure the boss knows said person
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Exactly this. As a "boss" I'm part of the team. My guys CC me on shit because they trust me and they value the 25 years of experience I have in our field. When shit goes down, it helps that the boss has been in the loop and has had at least the opportunity to weigh in before things go off the rails instead of being brought in after the fact to do damage control.
At the same time, I recognize that this only works if I'm treating this information flow as simply that. I usually skim most of the e-mail I'm CC