The carbon copy (cc) function in mail is only used to send people a copy of the mail if:
a) the sender is not sure about the content, and hopes a cc-er will check it;
b) the sender is not authorized about a certain aspect and uses the cc to cover his butt.
With increasing pressure on a project team, you will find more cc-recipients in the mails. People don’t have the time to check the content or get all the agreements needed, so they resolve to cc.
With increasing pressure, people have less time to read their mail, so they will skip all the mails that they received by carbon copy as it is not primary addressed to them.
Huw EvansSenior Manager, Projects and Partnerships| Vicinity CentresMount Waverley, Vic, Australia
I'm similar to Julie, I ask to be cc'ed to keep track of discussions. I do copy people in to emails when I think they may need to know about the content, but when I'm not expecting a response from that person.
Here's a side question, do you read the names that an email has been sent to - especially the cc'ed names?
This is something I've always done, but when I mentioned it to a colleague they were surprised and said they'd never thought of that.
It's often as important to know who is in a conversation as it is to know what the content of the conversation is.
Huw - you are not alone! I check the cc's for a number of reasons. Like you, it is useful to check who is in the loop. Especially if it includes someone who is not going to like the email content and you need to think of your strategy if they are about to land at your desk to challenge you! Or there may be key people who should have received the communication who have been left out of the loop. And I always check who is on the list before I respond by hitting Reply All as the response often does not need to be sent back to everyone on the original list and that saves inboxes being bombarded! Saving Changes...
