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Pro tip: I used to blast reply all at work but now I swear by BCC for group emails | Ask Anything - Guest Forum

Pro tip: I used to blast reply all at work but now I swear by BCC for group emails

Back in my first office job around 2018, I would just hit reply all on every chain because I thought everyone needed to see my two cents. It was exhausting reading 50 responses all saying "sounds good" or just forwarding the same attachment. Then last year, my manager pulled me aside after I accidentally CC'd the whole floor on a complaint about the coffee machine (true story, happened in Austin). She said "you're flooding inboxes with noise" and showed me how BCC works for team updates where only the sender needs to track replies. Now I only use reply all for urgent deadlines or direct questions where everyone's input is needed. The change happened when I realized most group emails are just info dumps, not conversations. Has anyone else shifted how they handle group email chains after a similar wake up call?

2 comments

2 Comments

gray_nelson4mo ago

Nah I gotta disagree with you here. BCC is basically just spamming people without giving them a chance to opt out or even know who else got the email. If I'm on a thread I want to know who else is on it so I can follow up with the right person later. The real issue isn't reply all it's people being lazy and not trimming their recipient list. I still use reply all but only after I delete anyone who doesn't actually need to be looped in.

dakotal194mo ago

Yo, THIS! Finally someone who gets it. BCC is such a coward move. I've been burned by it way too many times. People BCC me on something and I have no context for who the other people are or why I'm even on it. Then I have to dig through old emails to figure out what's going on. It's just lazy. I do the same thing with reply all. You just take two seconds to look at the list and delete the people who don't need to be there. It's not hard. Most of the time it's like three people who actually needed the update and twelve people who were cc'd three weeks ago. Just clean it up. People act like reply all is the devil but it's really just bad email hygiene. 99% of the problems come from people not paying attention. BCC just hides the problem instead of fixing it.