Reply to All ...... DON"T

From The New Yorker Twitter

Have you ever "Replied to All" and found out your comment went to someone you didn't realize was part of the email?  And then you had to apologize to that person?  Everyone has.
Sending emails to multiple recipients is very very common. Some of my emails will have 40 or 50 people in the "To: field".
And if I "Reply to All", then all 40 or 50 people get my comments.
And then all hell breaks loose.  Email after email, response after response, now barrages your Inbox. "Yeah, great idea", says one.  "Right on" says another.  None of these responses contributes to anyone's knowledge.  The responses are nonsense.
But there is a solution: BCC.
Hidden in your "Compose Email" window, usually over on the right side of the screen, are two links:  CC and BCC.  You have to click BCC with your mouse to get it front and center in your email composition page.
BCC means "blind copy".  This means that the person receiving your email will not see the other people who received your email and if the recipient Replies to All their email will only go back to you and not to everyone else you sent it to. The only names and email addresses the recipient sees are yours and his.
If you want recipients to know you sent this to a Group, then state it in the email body: "This email has been sent to all field salespeople".  Don't put all the names in the To: or CC: fields.
And if all your sales staff are in a group called "Field Sales" and you send it to this group in the To: field, everyone is copied in a Reply to All.  If you put the Group in the BCC field, problem solved.  (So many sales managers list every salesperson in the To: field when sending out emails.  Put the list into the BCC field and just state in your email that this is being sent to all field sales staff.  Simple, right?  If you want to make sure your group list is correct, send the list out every once in a while to have it checked by the recipients.  How many group lists contain employees who have left or been fired?  Keep your groups clean to prevent competitive information from getting out.)
Use BCC when sending emails to many people and everyone will love you for it.   Use BCC when you don't want the recipient to know who else you copied on the email.
Use BCC.
If you want cooperation and comments, don't use email.  There are better methods that I will discuss next week.