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Just received an email which was also sent to 30 other people and all it says was "Thanks Jim". Jim had
included the person in a weekly meeting.
The email had absolutely no value to members of the group. The sender could've replied to Jim privately. It brought me to a question. "When exactly should you use the "reply-all" button?
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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We have that problem sometimes. Recently one of the directors sent out a nice email announcing that a senior manager was retiring, to everyone. At least a couple of dozen people did "reply all" with their congratulations.
I will only use it when everyone on the original email needs to be included in my answer. Sometimes I will even hit "reply all" but then delete a few of the names that don't really need it. Probably worse for me is when someone doesn't know who to ask about something so sends it to 20 of us. They could easily just ask me and I would refer them to the right person.
Just received an email which was also sent to 30 other people and all it says was "Thanks Jim". Jim had
included the person in a weekly meeting.
The email had absolutely no value to members of the group. The sender could've replied to Jim privately. It brought me to a question. "When exactly should you use the "reply-all" button?
Thoughts, Comments, Suggestions?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hemlock140
We have that problem sometimes. Recently one of the directors sent out a nice email announcing that a senior manager was retiring, to everyone. At least a couple of dozen people did "reply all" with their congratulations.
I will only use it when everyone on the original email needs to be included in my answer. Sometimes I will even hit "reply all" but then delete a few of the names that don't really need it. Probably worse for me is when someone doesn't know who to ask about something so sends it to 20 of us. They could easily just ask me and I would refer them to the right person.
Both those situations seem a good use. In the first case, the sender was publicly thanking the person for something. What's wrong with that? Thank in public; chastise in private.
Likewise with the second. Someone's retirement is a good opportunity for everyone to recognize them and their future.
I only will reply all if everyone needs to see my response. And in most cases, it's with a small group.
I pretty much will NEVER 'reply all' if it's a big distribution list.
Actually - when I send an announcement out to a large list, I'll use the BCC function to avoid the ability to reply all (unless the person replying manually adds list).
A group of 3-4 Master Gardeners meet every week to answer incoming questions at the extension office. Everyone is sent the questions ahead of time, and as we have answers, or supporting information, we forward them to all.
Just received an email which was also sent to 30 other people and all it says was "Thanks Jim". Jim had
included the person in a weekly meeting.
The email had absolutely no value to members of the group. The sender could've replied to Jim privately. It brought me to a question. "When exactly should you use the "reply-all" button?
Thoughts, Comments, Suggestions?
You "Reply All" when "all" need to know the information/subject.
I was an elected official for years and once we got email "Reply All" became a pain because legally every official email had to be retained and archived. So one of my colleagues would ask a question to Town staff via email, mostly about something the rest of us didn't need to know, and we'd all get the email. The staff would respond, usually just to the questioner who would then send out a "Thanks" to all of us. One or two people were 90% of that.
I had a Vice Principal who would do drive through observations of a teacher and then send the observation feedback form to every staff member, a variation of "Reply All".
Part of that is the organization's culture. My current job and the one prior to that are "reply all" happy. It seems to be used often here. It was rarely used at previous jobs.
When I want to reply to everyone on the distribution list.
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