My inbox is cluttered with enough crap as it is. I don’t need copies of emails that I have already received. No, really.
Much as I appreciate my boss wanting to keep me abreast of the latest project news, I would appreciate it even more if he would take a second or two to scan through the recipients on the original message before blithely sending it to me.
Oh, and adding “FYI” to every. single. one? Not helping.
I’ve tried being diplomatic, but that’s been about as successful as Bafana Bafana’s game plan against Uruguay.
the other side of the mountain 
Hilarious. Sometimes I think people get promoted just so that they’ll be far from where they can do real damage! 😀
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Waddayamean??? I consider my crumbling sanity “real damage”.
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“I tried emailing you, but apparently your in-box is at capacity.If you get this message, please let me know.”
Does being kept in the loop mean you’ve gone loopy?
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More of a tailspin.
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what? you don’t like redundantly repetitive duplicate mail? where’s your sense of adventure?
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What can I say? I’m dull.
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I get that all the f#$&ing time! makes me crazy! (doesn’t take much)
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It’s enough to make one go e-postal.
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I get stupid shit all the time at work, I like to show people when then send incorrect spam, what it is.
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I’m leaning in that direction myself.
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The primary purpose of email within a corporation is to provide an arse-covering. Its function as a medium for passing information is very much secondary.
Back in 2002 when I had a
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A what? An itchy trigger finger? A lack of impulse control? An air of mystery? What? What?
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Sorry.
Back in 2002 when I last had a “proper” job I would receive about internal 350 emails per day. Any useful information was burried under a mountain of crap.
Being in authority for the first and only time in my life I sent a memo (paper) to everyone in the organisation (550 copies – I was sooo popular) telling everyone not to sent me anything by copy nor to forward me something unless they actually expected me to do something.
Dropped to about 10 emails per day. Bliss.
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I’d be afraid to try that, because it would be interpreted as “Send me all your work. I will do it for you”.
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Ah, I was heading up one of the trading teams at the and was generally considered to be slightly unstable. I used to tear phones from their sockets throw them on the floor and jump up and down on them from time to time which helped reinforce the impression. I got through 34 phone sets in under two years. I was working for an American company at the time and they weren’t used to Englishmen being that excitable so I was tollerated.
But it did mean that people steered around me in case I bit them or something. I was a pussycat really, but they didn’t have to know that.
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Really? What’s new, Pussycat?
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Just e-mail him straight back, EVERY TIME, saying,
“Thanks, already got it, see below.”
He’ll soon get the message. If not, I’m afraid you’re going to have to kill him.
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Will you help me hide the body?
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Anytime sailor…..have more than a few handy connections.
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Cool. I need a new USB cable.
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Clearly you’ve never done this before, numpty.
How are we going to hide they body with a USB cable?
Huh! Huh! Huh!
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Clearly you were exaggerating about your connections. *sigh*
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I find the “FYI” thing in general a bit condescending. And then don’t even get me started on the polemic monopoly of information in the office.
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Ok.
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If you get really frustrated you could print it out and throw it in your waste paper bin. It burns off more energy than pressing a delete key.
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The boss is big on saving paper, so if I print out everything he sends me and make sure he knows I’m doing it… Yes, I do believe that might actually work
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print it. throw it in your wastebin. set it on fire. should only take once or twice before he really gets the message…
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Smoke signals?
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Perhaps you’re one of these people who refuses to read important emails and needs to have them sent TWICE. Maybe you’ll actually read the damn thing the second time around. Have you considered that? Have you?
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Hmmm… this comment looks strangely familiar.
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I don’t know… what’s wrong with the humble post-it note?
Sx
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It depends where you put them. Location, location, location!
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Create a folder to put all these duplicate emails in. Every time the total reaches a multiple of ten, set something on fire.
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Eternal flame, anyone?
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Say, didya get that email I just sent?
Here, let me print it off for you…
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Thanks, the fire was starting to go out.
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I don’t know. This is much less annoying than people who “reply to all”!! Drives me INSANE! Especially when they are yakking on about something that is unrelated to you.
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Yeah, the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.
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Just in case you didn’t see the printouts Stephanie made, I taped them to your monitor.
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good, because the ones you left on my chair with my name highlighted I just moved into the recycling bin.
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I brought marshmallows!
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I get that all the time. I’m a manager, but I don’t manage people, I manage money… despite this, my esteemed colleagues feel that they must keep me in the loop, and continuously clog up my inbox with damn attachments!
My attitude now is “it was obviously very important to you, therefore you must have saved it, so I’ll delete mine” 😀
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An excellent approach. I feel a purge coming on.
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Oh, and don’t you just hate people who forward EVERYTHING, including all the confidentiality clauses and other such bumpf, which makes the email *that* much longer if you do have to print it out?!?
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I find it easier to hate people on principle. Reasons can be messy.
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I have actually used a “mail-bomb” tactic on past – PC-technology-challenged – bosses. Send them enough e-mail to keep ’em busy and it sure keeps them out of my face.
I have received those “cc” messages after having been on the original “to” list. I simply consider the source. Of course, there’s always the delete key…
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True, but I still have to apply my mind to each one. There’s only so much of it to go around before it’ll be all used up.
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That ranks right up there with chain mail type forwards.
But you have to love it that we still use the abbreviation for carbon copy. Sadly, I’m old enough to have used typewriters and carbon copies.
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Hey, me too
Remember the telex? That was some awesome technology, wasn’t it?
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Well, I typed a truly interesting comment, and when i hit ‘post comment’ my connection had slipped and the whole thing was lost. oh well. what i was going to say was how i miss the phone. people that use the phone a lot get much more done i think. and that my greatest email annoyance is when you CALL someone and make a request and instead of saying ‘yes, give me a day or two and i’ll do that…’ they say ‘could you send me an email outlining your request?’ as if their attention span and note-taking skills are lacking so much that you need to reinforce your request with a follow-up email. that’s what makes me want to take a swan-dive off the side of the building.
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The personal touch has no place in the modern corporate world. Also, we aren’t allowed to commit suicide. It’s against company policy.
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i’m always fashionably late for these interesting lickle chats you have with your fan club … but the list of comments under your “from the sidelines” section on this page looks like a spam attack waiting to happen.
ah and what about “bcc” ?? … before the caveman cometh …
me also knows about telexes thank you very much, as well as IBM golf ball typewriters. Now that was a technological marvel if ever there was one.
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My fan club loves me because I’m so pretty. And I know stuff.
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i like when people send an email to “all in network” telling everyone not to “reply all” in emails, and everyone “replies all” agreeing people need to stop hitting “reply all.”
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you is the all-seeing all-knowing oracle, fe sure.
never doubted that for a minute.
i would never call a man pretty … well maybe Robert Smith (when he was a young un and the Cure had just started fiddling about with goth music)
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So true. Most things are better the second time around. But the third time? That’s when the charm kicks in. Hold out for the charm, friend. You deserve nothing less.
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I disagree. The charm really kicks in two years later when you’re forwarded THE SAME EMAIL again because it was just SO wonderful the first three times.
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