REPLY TO SENDER … PLUS
Wednesday, March 3, 2021 – daily column #6685
Do you hate it too?
Someone sends an email to a group – no need to reply. If you do, you can just reply to the sender; or deliberately send a copy to someone you want to loop into the conversation, but …
Some people don’t.
They ‘Reply To All,’ which has its place when everyone needs to know.
But too often, it isn’t necessary.
What ensues is a series of email trails/strings back and forth between one or two people, which, by ‘Reply to All,’ publishes that entire conversation to everyone in the group. It might be three or 53, but you really get that distribution and all the reply volleys that follow.
I get so annoyed sometimes about stupid, meaningless shite messing up my inbox, but more annoyingly, it’s the interruptions.
What’s better?
We all know that – fewer emails, fewer replies, shorter replies, and avoid Reply to All.
It ought to be a rule, right?
Or not?
Here’s an argument for something else I experienced recently – the deliberate, intentional for a good reason, REPLY TO ALL.
I sent a reply to all the other day – to someone who had led an initiative and was reported to a group I am part of. That person had been doing an incredible job, an unsung volunteer, and praise was deserved. I wrote several paragraphs. It took less than ten minutes. Because I replied to all, everyone in the group realized, methinks, three things. That the praise was deserved, that praise was overdue, and they could praise too. And each did, each replied to all, and the result was more powerful than if we’d all shipped a bouquet of flowers. Everyone added to the accolades. The modest person being praised was surprised, gracious in her responses, and the volleying continued through to the next day. Nobody complained. Nobody’s email folder got plugged or overwhelmed.
There is a time, and a place, when replying to all is an amplifier attached to a trumpet. I’m sure it could easily be a flood-gate opportunity for negativity, which I don’t advocate.
Someone once taught me, in an employment setting, to praise in public and reprimand in private. I think that is even more prescient in the internet age …
Reader feedback:
Excellent :), AG, Cancun, Mex.
Good evening Mark, I coach students who have very little experience creating handwritten letters. Whether for personal or professional communication they view letter writing with skepticism or discomfort. I am on a mission to show that letters are the human connection between head, heart and hand. Your column reinforced my counselling. Thanks so much, JR, Calgary, AB
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