"Reply to All"

[Finance85]

SIAP. I searched the forum and came up with nothing.

I finally got tired of a particular co-worker who always replies to all.

I'm part of a project team and frequently get e-mails from the project manager directed to the entire team, but only require a response back to the project manager. My co-worker always replies to all. She has to go out of her way to do this based on our standard e-mail settings.

I had previously commented about this in a team meeting, in a nice and glib way. Today I responded in an e-mail thread to please stop replying to all unless everyone needed to know her response.

Oh, this same person also has to speak up in every meeting about something that involves her and nobody else. She also has to have the last word in every team meeting.

Wise people of the LR, and those who aren't, what would you do?

 

[mcgrawfsu]

Start replying to the sender and cc her. Heck, just start cc’ing her on everything

 

[RunRonnieRun]

Teach the project manager how to BCC

 

[cmanole]

Pics first then advice...

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

Just delete her emails as soon as you get them.

Or just ignore them like I would.

 

[ericram]

Feel your pain OP. Think outlook should move the reply all button to the other end of the menu bar.

 

[GoNolesTX]

Slyly take out just one of the wheels from her desk chair. If her work station is locked when she's away from her desk, switch the monitor cables on her PC so her monitors are backwards when she logs back in. If she doesn't lock her work station when she gets up, change the pointer speed on her mouse to glacially slow.

I mean, the possibilities are endless here. Unless you're remote workers, then... I'd set a rule in Outlook that any email from her is auto-forwarded back to her.

 

[GoNolesTX]

Feel your pain OP. Think outlook should move the reply all button to the other end of the menu bar.

Ya know... all you old farts and your using the mouse. So much quicker to just Ctrl + R for a direct reply or Alt + L for a reply to all. Sheesh!

 

[ericram]

Ya know... all you old farts and your using the mouse. So much quicker to just Ctrl + R for a direct reply or Alt + L for a reply to all. Sheesh!

You youngins and your damn shortcuts.

 

[cmanole]

Slyly take out just one of the wheels from her desk chair. If her work station is locked when she's away from her desk, switch the monitor cables on her PC so her monitors are backwards when she logs back in. If she doesn't lock her work station when she gets up, change the pointer speed on her mouse to glacially slow.

I mean, the possibilities are endless here. Unless you're remote workers, then... I'd set a rule in Outlook that any email from her is auto-forwarded back to her.

Could also pick up the receiver of her phone, tape the little clicky thing down then put the receiver back in the cradle...

 

[EconSean]

A recent iteration of mobile Outlook has reply all as the default. Takes an additional step or two to reply to just the sender, which seems rather absurd. Surely most replies are only to the sender, right? I wonder why the developers chose reply all to be the default now?

 

[SeaPA]

Ya know... all you old farts and your using the mouse. So much quicker to just Ctrl + R for a direct reply or Alt + L for a reply to all. Sheesh!

Hmmm, I’ve found that old farts who actually learned how to type are far better at learning and using keyboard shortcuts. It’s usually the younger crew who are heavily mouse oriented.

On the OP, reply all in emails is not nearly as annoying as group text threads & people who reply all on those.

 

[noleclone2]

Ignore her but also be wary and guarded around her This type will knife you in a second when something goes wrong on a project on which she is involved.

 

[squiffynole]

There was a guy who left an automatic reply to all message before going on vacation - it paralyzed the system for a few hours people "honored" him by calling it the Buster virus.

 

[FSUdawg]

Ya know... all you old farts and your using the mouse. So much quicker to just Ctrl + R for a direct reply or Alt + L for a reply to all. Sheesh!

That's funny. I used to be called old because I used keyboard shortcuts. The younger generation didn't have a clue how to navigate Windows unless they had a working mouse connected.

Now if I use a mouse, I'm old, lol.

 

[GoNolesTX]

Could also pick up the receiver of her phone, tape the little clicky thing down then put the receiver back in the cradle...

Or just arrange the keys of her keyboard to say "RE: FAIL"?

 

[GoNolesTX]

Come to think of it... I think I'm one of the olds that prefers to operate by keyboard only. I think eric is the outlier being that he's older than me.

 

[ReliableOstrich]

If her computer isn't locked, take a screenshot of her desktop.
Then take create a new folder on the desktop and move all her desktop icons into it.
Then set her wallpaper as the screenshot you took.
Then watch for hours as she furiously tries to click on icons that don't really exist.

Was hilarious when I was an intern back in '00. Probably still is.

 

[F4Gary]

On the OP, reply all in emails is not nearly as annoying as group text threads & people who reply all on those.

No Scat. My sister and sis-in-law do this. It'll start as a legit group text and they just keep yammering on about nothing.

 

[surfnole]

Hmmm, I’ve found that old farts who actually learned how to type are far better at learning and using keyboard shortcuts. It’s usually the younger crew who are heavily mouse oriented.

On the OP, reply all in emails is not nearly as annoying as group text threads & people who reply all on those.

Even worse are those in group texts continually replying to the group to stop texting them. Both Android and Iphone have a way to either 1) Turn off notifications 2) Remove yourself.

 

[Urban Cryer]

Crop dust her.

 

[Finance85]

Pics first then advice...

Oh, I'm certain I would get banned if I posted her pic. She's around 60 and looks much older.

 

[Finance85]

All good suggestions. My company uses a corporate version of g-mail because we travel so much. At least half the time the team is all together in a conference room, though we are usually working independently. No desk phones or permanent workstations.

 

[SeaPA]

You could always rent an alien costume.

 

[GoNolesTX]

Oh, I'm certain I would get banned if I posted her pic. She's around 60 and looks much older.

All good suggestions. My company uses a corporate version of g-mail because we travel so much. At least half the time the team is all together in a conference room, though we are usually working independently. No desk phones or permanent workstations.

Time for her to get some daily deal emails on AARP, Eargo Plus, Metamucil, etc.

 

[OrlandNole]

Crop dust her.

Or he could go falcon punch and get it over with.

 

[Squirrel J.]

 

[Fijimn]

I worked for a particularly curmudgeon partner that s-canned a few staff members for repeatedly using reply-all or sending broadcast emails. However, i'm sure this is not an option in the corporate world.

 

[Finance85]

Ignore her but also be wary and guarded around her This type will knife you in a second when something goes wrong on a project on which she is involved.

Good advice.

 

[GoNolesTX]

Seems as good a place as any for this cautionary tale.

About 13 years ago, young GNT was working in a "corporate environment", also known in my circles as a sweatshop of a national title company. We were all expected to meet a metric of production in a pre-2008 refinance boom. Turns out that there was a website that allowed folks to mimic any email address out there, which was the basis of an email chain among co-workers - a co-worker's sister had been messing with her, sending her emails from her "boyfriend" for days before coming clean.

After a morning full of emails and distractions, and being the youngest of the group, Young GNT had enough and decided to end all this without getting picked on by sending a "please take me out of this email chain" email. What better way than to email the group, posing as our boss (the VP of Title), stating the disappointment of all the email traffic at the sake of "metrics not being met."

Little did Young GNT know that if you entered in a valid return email address, replies would actually go to THAT recipient. Yup, a co-worker replied back, pleading his case that his numbers were being met. Turns out, it was quite easy (even back then) to trace where the original email came from.

At that point, I found out how quickly I could get fired for being young and dumb. I don't screw with corporate email any more. Well... when I get a job again that is.

 

[Finance85]

Update - after not getting any replies to all for a couple of days, I got one today where the coworker was declining a meeting invitation. I sent another reply asking her to stop replying to all. If push comes to shove I will tell her that I'm going to send that same message each time she replies to all when it's not appropriate.

While this seems like a relatively small thing, I probably get 50 work related e-mails per day, along with a notification. It adds up.

 

[ReliableOstrich]

@Finance85 I believe gmail (and gmail corporate products) have an option to change the default reply setting to reply instead of reply all.

If that doesn't work - please consider my idea of updating her desktop screensaver posted earlier in this thread. I watched The Office, workplace antics are encouraged in corporate America.

 

[CC0492]

Do you work in Waco? There is something you can do and apparently not get into any trouble for.

 

[Finance85]

@Finance85 I believe gmail (and gmail corporate products) have an option to change the default reply setting to reply instead of reply all.

If that doesn't work - please consider my idea of updating her desktop screensaver posted earlier in this thread. I watched The Office, workplace antics are encouraged in corporate America.

Actually I checked back and you are right. There's a default setting for replies. I'm screen printing the setting and will send it to her as a reply going forward.

When my company sets up accounts, the default setting is Reply, not Reply to All. My boss is the COO and he'd freak out if everyone did the Reply to All.

 

[NDallasRuss]

"Thousands of Utah state government employees last Friday perhaps became aware that Carol in human resources makes a mean spinach-artichoke dip, or that Barry in accounting won’t be able to participate in this year’s white elephant. That’s because a harmless email about an office’s holiday potluck gift exchange was mistakenly sent to 25,000 state workers, who, by Murphy’s First Law Of Office Email, began replying-all asking to be taken off the reply-all thread."

"Even Utah’s lieutenant governor couldn’t untangle his inbox from the quickly spiraling white-elephant tornado, which threatened to engulf every inbox in its path. He tweeted: “This is real and it’s an emergency. Started out as a potluck and $5 white elephant gift exchange in one department and someone accidentally cc’d every state employee. I fear this will never end.”"

https://thetakeout.com/utah-state-reply-all-potluck-email-office-25000-1831023040

 

[RunRonnieRun]

Update - after not getting any replies to all for a couple of days, I got one today where the coworker was declining a meeting invitation. I sent another reply asking her to stop replying to all. If push comes to shove I will tell her that I'm going to send that same message each time she replies to all when it's not appropriate.

While this seems like a relatively small thing, I probably get 50 work related e-mails per day, along with a notification. It adds up.

50 emails a day? Are you a janitor?

 

[Finance85]

50 emails a day? Are you a janitor?

Cute.

 

[RunRonnieRun]

Cute.

That’s one way to describe your inbox volume.

 

[ReliableOstrich]

"Thousands of Utah state government employees last Friday perhaps became aware that Carol in human resources makes a mean spinach-artichoke dip, or that Barry in accounting won’t be able to participate in this year’s white elephant. That’s because a harmless email about an office’s holiday potluck gift exchange was mistakenly sent to 25,000 state workers, who, by Murphy’s First Law Of Office Email, began replying-all asking to be taken off the reply-all thread."

"Even Utah’s lieutenant governor couldn’t untangle his inbox from the quickly spiraling white-elephant tornado, which threatened to engulf every inbox in its path. He tweeted: “This is real and it’s an emergency. Started out as a potluck and $5 white elephant gift exchange in one department and someone accidentally cc’d every state employee. I fear this will never end.”"

https://thetakeout.com/utah-state-reply-all-potluck-email-office-25000-1831023040

Those things were always highlights of my corporate days. Also when someone would accidentally create a company of practice wide sametime chat.

Loved watching people irrationally flip out. The human psyche is so fragile. We have our own petting zoo of fragile adults in the TC.

 

[Finance85]

That’s one way to describe your inbox volume.

Switching from cute to arrogant.