CC is the best passive aggressive tool today!

CJones

CJones

Final Approach
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uHaveNoIdea
I have come to love the CC: function of Outlook.

I have been butting heads with an IT guy since I got here back in May. I nearly got up and throttled him in our first meeting together. He was fine for a while after that, but he recently got dinged by his boss for putting my projects on the back-burner. So now he's back to his normal condescending self. We had a meeting with his boss today and apparently his boss isn't very happy either.

I've traded a few emails with him (the guy, not the boss) today, each one more "WTF!?" than the previous.

Finally, I CC:'d my boss and his boss on our recent conversation. Talk about the epitome of passive aggressive!

I need a drink...
 
the intern is stirring up the hornets nest... :)
 
Just don't read your e-mail. Life is better that way.
 
You trying to trap him with the "reply all" button? We have stories of IT talk mess about users then hitting "reply all" with them as CC.
 
tonycondon said:
the intern is stirring up the hornets nest... :)
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Darn straight! I'm not the 'typical' intern - I'm 2 years older than my boss, and at LEAST that much older than this guy that's being a moron.

The first time I butted heads with him was when he tried to puff his chest out in a meeting with me and another intern. Ummmm... No.

EdFred said:
BCC > CC
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I reserve BCC for the extreme cases. I already got a reply from the CC. At least he knows to recognize a CC on an email - he's very cooperative now.

TGIF!
 
Few things are stinkier than email ****ing contests.

Before you send the third email, walk over and talk face to face.

Solves a whole lotta problems and wastes far less time.
 
When it gets like my joint, CCs don't work because the bosses are getting 100 emails a second - more than a human can process.

What does work is documentation. I use notepad for my project logs. F5 is time and date stamp. When some maroon that you wonder how they find the office door every morning tries to blame you for their latest f-up you just calmly reply with what you did and exactly when.

I also have the warm feeling (hope) that the maroon's boss will eventually wonder why he/she is the one who is always having problems with the very same people his/her other direct reports aren't having problems with.
 
dmccormack said:
Few things are stinkier than email ****ing contests.

Before you send the third email, walk over and talk face to face.

Solves a whole lotta problems and wastes far less time.
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Aww c'mon!! You're being WAAY too logical. ;) :D
 
aw geez, these things NEVER end well ... see BOFH ....
 
gkainz said:
aw geez, these things NEVER end well ... see BOFH ....
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Ahhh.. It's not THAT bad.. The guy gets a little over the top when dealing with interns. The other interns just grin and bear it because they don't know any better. I've been far enough around the block to realize that he's just puffing his chest a bit. Luckily I am on very good terms with his boss and my boss alike, so if he starts puffing his chest at me, I go over the top and have someone deflate him for me.

It's one thing to puff your chest when you have something to puff it about. It's another thing to puff it simply because you FINALLY have someone around that is 'lower' than you - or at least HE thinks so. ;)
 
CJones said:
Aww c'mon!! You're being WAAY too logical. ;) :D
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Is my 15 years of Project management too obvious...?

:D

Of course, it was also an Army thing -- somewhere there was a rule (maybe Ft Knox in 92?) -- no more than 2 emails on a topic.

Any more required face-to-face or phone call.
 
CJones said:
Darn straight! I'm not the 'typical' intern - I'm 2 years older than my boss, and at LEAST that much older than this guy that's being a moron.
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I know you're just kidding around, but age is actually a surprisingly common problem. Age is sort of like ego - both are completely irrelevant. You can't ever think that you know something better than someone else purely because you're older or have more years of experience. Lots of times, age or years of experience doesn't matter much. It's sort of like hours in aviation.

One of the worst instances of this problem is when someone on a team gets annoyed because his boss is younger. I have had this problem many times because people who work for me are often twice as old. Nevertheless, it's important to keep in mind that we all want to achieve the same goal. Way too many relationships end up being adversarial in nature when they shouldn't be....
 
If you are going to use CC, call it out.

Escalation email said:
Bill,
I have included both Brian and Bob on this email. Brian, this is as we discussed in your office earlier today. Bob, I am escalating this issue to you as you are Bill's direct manager. I would appreciate meeting with the four of us in the immediate future to discuss the issues raised in the below string of emails.

Thanks,

Chris
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But hey, that's just how I roll.

Cheers,

-Andrew
 
> Of course, it was also an Army thing -- somewhere there was
>a rule (maybe Ft Knox in 92?) -- no more than 2 emails on a topic.

I like it!!!
 
Pi1otguy said:
BCC = poor sportsmanship.
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Sometimes.

I tend to use it when working with a customer; I BCC the sales rep so they are in the loop even though they don't need to do anything. It is easier for them to close a sale knowing the customer history. It also helps them from being blind-sided on the occasional issue that takes more than a single e-mail to resolve. I use BCC so the customer doesn't feel they are being ganged-up upon.
 
dmccormack said:
Is my 15 years of Project management too obvious...?

:D

Of course, it was also an Army thing -- somewhere there was a rule (maybe Ft Knox in 92?) -- no more than 2 emails on a topic.

Any more required face-to-face or phone call.
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Good rule. My first reaction when I'm cc'd on an e-mail war is, "Great, now I have a people problem to fix, as if I didn't have enough to do already."


Trapper John
 
BillTIZ said:
That only works if you are in the same building and not seperated by 50 miles.
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Try 2070 miles. Where the guy there looking at it is asking you 2070 miles away - who has never seen the system or facility in your life - where and how to install it... and you figure it out and tell him.
 
astanley said:
If you are going to use CC, call it out.
Click to expand...

Trapper John said:
Good rule. My first reaction when I'm cc'd on an e-mail war is, "Great, now I have a people problem to fix, as if I didn't have enough to do already."
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Yeah, agree with both. (being on all the sides of this stuff) Usually, when I need to CC in someone above, I'll create an excuse for it that is "legitamate" so it doesn't seem to be a punishment... ie:

"IT VP, once <annoying guy> is done, we'll be able to move on the Project 233 we discussed in the hall the other day...I'll bug you once we can move on that. His work will be a great help!"

...or something. Nothing like a compliment to cap of being passive-aggressive. (I don't actually do this that often...but when issues do crop up, I think out the tactics carefully. Face to face often works best if possible...but some people require other methods. War must be flexible. :))

When people CC me in suddenly without giving me a reason (and it's not something obvious) I usually ask "What are you asking me to do?" Keeps the volume down...although I still get hundreds of emails of a day.

BCC is most useful when you email a large portion of a company at once...keeps one guys "Awesome!" response who felt the compulsion to "reply all" from going to the entire executive team. (or more often, petty whining) If the "TO" is back to yourself, people understand you are just hiding the recipient list. Or, my boss knows a BCC to him means "FYI...just in case this somehow escalates back to you so you are informed, but I don't want you to take any action."
 
One thing I picked up from my new southerner boss is the non-apology apology to their stoopid.

Recently, "I'm sorry it took me so long to approve your approval." when they backed off after going out on a tangent over an obviously stoopid objection.
 
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