Replying to Emails

 

1.       Replying to an email can be very tricky. Using the ‘reply all’ option can cause many problems and could cost you your job. Do you know when/how to appropriately use the ‘reply all’ button? 

2.      Never respond to an email if you are under the influence of alcohol. Remember that all email sent to and from your work account is archived permanently. 

 

Either people don’t know what reply all is, or social networks have convinced them that broadcasting is the only legitimate form of communication. The handy tool is used so much that the thinking seems to be, “Why tell one person ‘thx’ when you could deliver that message to dozens of people simultaneously?”

Well, I can think of two reasons: First, replying all at the wrong time can be rude because the sender may not have wanted all responses to be visible to everyone. Second, it’s pretty boring to spend the whole day deleting monosyllabic responses to something that never even applied to you in the first place.

Read through the following scenarios to see when to “reply one” and when to reply all.

Scenario: A colleague got a new job and sends a farewell email to the whole office. Do you reply all?

No.There is no conceivable reason why anyone but the person who is leaving would want to see your response, since the only person it has anything to do with is the person who is leaving.

Scenario: Your friend invites you and five friends to dinner on Friday. Do you reply all?

Yes. Help out your nice friend who is trying to organize a get-together with you and the rest of your group by responding publicly — it’ll help people to coordinate and is likely to solicit RSVPs more quickly. If I don’t see that other people have responded to an email invite, I tend to either forget about the invitation altogether or just take my sweet time RSVP’ing because that’s what it looks like everyone else is doing. Replying all is a good way to remind people that their presence continues to be requested at this fun event you are trying to help them have fun at.

Scenario: Your friend invites you to his huge 30th birthday party. Reply all?

Yes, you should go. No, do not reply all. Your presence at a huge party is completely inconsequential to everyone except the host. Reply singular on this one.

Scenario: You’re Bcc’d. Reply all?

No. Why? You can’t. The Bcc’d are second class citizens not trusted with the ability to reply all.

Scenario: You receive a work email containing a rhetorical question or straight up statement to which the only conceivable response is “ok.”

Please no. Your silence here is your assent in this scenario, even though your assent isn’t even required since no one is honestly asking you whether this is okay. Stay quiet.

Scenario: Someone sends a company-wide email asking for nominations for the city’s best make out bar. Reply all with your recommendation?

Yes. Email threads exist because when they’re fun they’re fun, but only participate if you have something meaningful to add. It’s your call on whether what you want to write is meaningful, but a good general rule is if you have to sit there racking your brain for a clever response, you shouldn’t be replying to that thread. Save your replies for conversations that really speak to you. Reply all is like anything else: with every use it decreases in value.

Scenario: You’re on an email thread that no longer applies to 70 percent of the recipients because they’re not going to dinner, participating in the blood drive or hoping to make out with someone they work with. Reply all?

No. Have a heart and remove the non-responders from the list. Remember, it’s only by removing the dead leaves that you allow the bush to flourish.