Reply All? PLEASE Don't!

As an avid emailer, I completely understand why the Reply All option was invented. What I will never understand, however, is why people use the Reply All option on company-wide emails. Do they just not realize the difference between Reply and Reply All? Or, do these individuals think the entire distribution list wants to hear their reasons for not being able to attend a company-wide meeting or event?

I have to think that more often than not, it's a mistake of epic, embarrassing proportions. The best is when multiple people hit Reply All, which usually prompts someone of authority to send out the scolding "Please don't use the reply all button" email to... yep, everyone. This has always been one of my biggest pet peeves in the corporate world. Case in point, my friend Steve Rock Star, who I haven't worked with since 1999, recently told me "For the record, every time we get a 'reply to all' on a company wide e-mail, I still mutter jackass."

Another email pet peeve is the failure to proofread before hitting the dreaded send button. Now, I'm not some weird, OCD lunatic who saves emails by the hundreds. But, I will admit that I have an archive, so to speak, of my all-time favorite emails. Some of them are not suitable to be reprinted, but the majority of them most definitely are, as was apparent with the infamous "Bathroom" email.

Here is another one of my all-time favorites, word for word, from the book publishing days:

Since Beth had suggested team members to come in earlier than normal time they come in so that we can bet any deadlines for packages to go out that day while UPS is on strike. I prefer meeting at 9:30 a.m. daily until communication gap is filled in, to discuss workload. See ya tomorrow morning!

When this appeared in my Inbox, I seriously read it about two dozen times. Finally, I asked for another interpretation from my former coworker, The Goof. I forwarded it to him with the very difficult question of "What the hell is she trying to say?"

And he responded with:

I honestly have no idea. I read it three times, and I think it has something to do with you guys driving for UPS while Beth suggests deadlines for team members' packages?

I think the sender of that email brings a whole new meaning to the UPS slogan "What can Brown do for you?"