I was used to work in small companies, start-ups, or just plain small companies… Soon thereafter I joined my current job, I started to notice what I’ve come to realize is a common practice: The Growing Carbon Copy List, well at least in this company.
This is how it works, I would send an email to one of the QA engineers assigned to the project, something along the lines of :
Hey Mr A. can you please send me an update on the progress of the QA cycle ? in particular on the Regression Test Plan execution as I am worry we might be running late.
As a reply I would get a a quick note: “I’ll send you the information by tomorrow” and a couple of people added to the cc: like his Manager, and the other QA engineer. Later on his Manager would send an update, and now the CC list would also include the Dev. director, and of course his comment will include now the VP of QA… so by now the innocent question has been made visible all the way to the top, Well just one step before the CTO or CEO of the company.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all about visibility and letting stake holders know what’s going on, but it needs to be done in a sensible fashion. I thought I was the only one thinking that this was a problem, but a few months later I was talking with the QA VP, and she happened to mention somthing that I connected to this practice: I usually don’t fully read the emails, as I get too many, unless I am on the To: field. Which I think was her way of saying If I am not on the To: I’ll go to the archive directly.
Sometimes I even remove people from the cc: as I think the topic is going into too much detail, just to find out on the next answer that they’ve been added again.
In the end I suspect is a self defense mechanism, maybe a way to keep a supervisor apraissed of how the time is spent ? maybe a way to “prove” that I was against that from the beginning, or just a I told you so (even if you were not interested at the time). If that’s the case, maybe is a “strange” work environment where people feel the need to self protect using these growing cc list.
So when to use the Cc ? My rule is to include someone in the Cc: when likely that person will become involved in the conversation, either on the email, or even later in a phone or face to face conversation. And I usually even include the reason towards the end of the email, like:
Mr S. I am Cc-ing you as I think we’ll need to include this one on the next release of Product Y
email at work is just one of the many communication tools available today, and even though it is so easy to include anyone on that innocent cc. field, always ask the question: Is this person really interested on this email ?
Of course I’d be curious to know your experiences on these growing Ccs, or is it just me going crazy ?
