Have you ever witnessed what happens when someone hits “Reply to all” when they clearly didn’t mean to?
It usually starts innocently enough. Someone mistakenly sends an email to hundreds of people when they intended it to only go to one person.
For example, Kathy, in Atlanta, errantly sends something like this to the entire sales force:
What time are we supposed to be on that call Friday?
She’s referring to a scheduled phone call with a local client, and she meant to ask only her coworker Steve.
John in Seattle is confused. He replies to all:
What call? I’m planning on being out of the office Friday.
Sam in New York is also confused:
Do I know you?
And Jane in Tampa accidentally makes things much worse:
I think it’s at 2:30
Unfortunately, Jane has a call scheduled at 2:30 for her regional office by coincidence. Now, many of the people who initially dismissed the emails are starting to wonder if there really is a call.
Tom in New York doubts himself:
Wait, is there really a company-wide call?
Mike in Seattle has had enough:
No, stop hitting reply to all.
Jim in Atlanta just got back from lunch:
Why am I getting all these emails?
Lisa jumps in to explain, thereby adding to the clutter:
I think the first person just accidentally hit reply to all. If there are phone calls, they are local only, so if you aren’t aware of one, don’t worry about it.
Peter in Los Angeles reads IHYJ and thinks this is hilarious. He wants it to continue:
The call Friday isn’t for everyone. If you don’t know about it, you weren’t invited.
Peter’s friend Joe in L.A. plays along:
Only people on target to hit quota were invited to the call.
Ray in Madison takes the bait:
I’m about to close a big deal. Who should I contact to see if I’m supposed to be on the call?
I think this happens about once a year in most large companies. The sporadic frequency, the varying types of emails: it is essentially an email meteor shower.
If you’re lucky enough to witness one, kick back and enjoy, my friend. There are few office phenomena as entertaining to witness in the corporate world.
If you enjoy reading this blog, why not tip the author?
31 responses so far ↓
1 Michael // Oct 3, 2007 at 12:25 pm
hahahahaha i love it
2 Brad Shorr // Oct 3, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Yep - reply to all is cheap entertainment, though it can be horribly embarrassing to the sender.
3 Joanne // Oct 3, 2007 at 1:12 pm
LOL, similar results when it happens on university organization listervs. It’s both amusing and annoying because my inbox gets flooded with enough emails as it is, hah.
4 Jason // Oct 3, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Hilarious!
You should have seen my, my dad’s, and my aunt’s inboxes last month when we were all frantically trying to score hard-to-get concert tickets and sending a bajillion emails to each other to get status reports and offer advice and support.
The torrent of email created by “reply all” is a blight on our society.
5 Peggy // Oct 3, 2007 at 1:28 pm
ROFL….
My sister is the best at adding various people to the family emails…. And of course, most of us hit “reply all” and eventually the talk goes back to real family stuff…to which those poor innocent people my sister added on her first email are subject to and probably thinking….
“Why in the Sam Hill am I getting all this junk from this family?”
6 Tiffany // Oct 3, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Great post! This happens so often it’s not even funny. We are doing all we can to stop the corporate junk mail that’s generated so often, you wish it was possible to block an internal sender!
7 Chuck Westbrook // Oct 3, 2007 at 2:43 pm
@Michael– I love it too, thanks for helping to inspire this post.
@Brad Shorr–Absolutely. Consider the case in which the email sent reads something like, “Tom is a jerk. I hate these meetings.” Oops!
@Joanne– I remember that happening as well. For some reason, I found that much more annoying than the corporate equivalent which I only found funny. I wonder why that is.
@Jason– Did you get the tickets?
@Peggy– Your sister reminds me of one of my aunts. She is an email explosion incarnate.
@Tiffany– You know, the most irritating emails I received while at my old job were the “Internal Memo” type emails. Red Toyota with its lights on, AC will be out on Thursday, so and so got promoted, so and so is leaving the company… Somehow, I was on a list for a building I didn’t even work in, so it never applied to me. I added her to my blocked senders list : )
8 Jason // Oct 3, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Yep! 11th row aisle seats for Neil Young at Massey Hall. It was a fight, for sure. The whole story is quite hilarious, remind me to post it on my music blog when I review the concert.
9 Ashley // Oct 3, 2007 at 3:39 pm
Hahaha.
This happens in our office more often than not, and it makes me laugh every time.
Does anyone else have the guy that insists on using shorthand but only makes things worse?? Tell me I’m not the only person that has to ask 3 or 4 more questions simply because you get an email similar (or worse!) to this:
“pls send…
copy guy below…
I’m going to break up this email so
it makes no sense
to you
and not. use. punctuation
properly
thks”
10 Penelope Trunk // Oct 3, 2007 at 4:09 pm
“Email meteor shower” is great, Chuck.
I wonder why email software doesn’t hide the “reply to all” button. There are so few times when it is the right button to choose that people should have to work harder to find it.
11 Chuck Westbrook // Oct 4, 2007 at 9:34 am
@Jason– Don’t forget to post the story on your music blog when you review the concert ; )
@Ashley– That’s funny to me. I could enjoy reading more about that guy’s emails…
@Penelope– Outside of the corporate world, reply to all’s probably the more useful option. Maybe it should disappear when there’s more than 10 people involved in the discussion.
12 Mary Schmidt // Oct 4, 2007 at 10:15 am
“Reply All” is just as much of a problem outside the corporate world - nonprofit committees, etc.
One committee on which I worked, we had a lot of very non-savvy emailers. So, EVERYTHING was reply all. I routinely deleted just about all of these unread. And didn’t miss a thing.
I’m with Penelope re the button. Or maybe even an “Are you sure?” prompt. But then if the sender doesn’t understand the basics, he or she will likely continue to merrily hit it… sigh.
13 elysa // Oct 4, 2007 at 10:24 am
Thanks for the laugh. This happens in our office all the time. I do actually use reply all with my friends when we are scheduling things - but that only includes about 4 people.
14 Chuck Westbrook // Oct 4, 2007 at 10:37 am
@Mary– You’re absolutely right. I was thinking about personal emails involving multiple people, but any large group stands to be harmed by the reply to all button.
The “Are you sure” prompt would work well. “This will send an email to ‘134′ people. Are you sure?”
If they press forward anyway, they are beyond hope…
@Elysa– I should send an email to all IHYJ readers and see if anyone replies to all… Once they realized what they had done in light of this post, they would probably never use the button again.
15 Angela // Oct 4, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Most of my emails are from PR people and are CC-ed to hundreds of others. I think this might be a fun way to break up the Monday grind.
16 Rebecca Thorman // Oct 4, 2007 at 1:44 pm
Hilarious, as usual, Chuck
17 holli jo // Oct 4, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Ha! Thankfully, I have never experienced this, though I have heard stories about those who do.
However, I’ve experienced the flipside - someone who purposely hits ‘reply all’ for absolutely no good reason except to have a wider audience as she berates you over email. That’s not fun!
18 JoeDrinker // Oct 4, 2007 at 5:21 pm
I love it when these occur. I’m the type of person who will things up in order to propagate them, and have almost scored lunch on more than one occasion:
“Remember, this meeting is a potluck, so bring an entrée to share.”
Survival of the fittest, I say.
19 Rosie // Oct 4, 2007 at 8:12 pm
Hahaaaa… That’s great… and so incredibly true. Great post Chuck! You had me laughing like crazy at the office and everyone was wondering what was going on.
20 Jayne // Oct 5, 2007 at 3:37 am
Hahaha… I love it when that happens.
Back when I worked in the corporate world, I started sending mass emails where everyone was BCCed so no one could do that. A reply-to-all doesn’t work if they’re BCCed.
21 MyStarbucks // Oct 5, 2007 at 10:48 am
I got a laugh out of that. Kind of reminds me of “who’s on first?”. Hahahaha
22 Chuck Westbrook // Oct 5, 2007 at 11:12 am
@Angela– If you do that, you must share with us. Yes?
@Rebecca– Thanks. These types of posts are fun to write, but I’m not sure how many of them I have in me.
@holli jo– Oooh, that’s a different phenomenon altogether…
@JoeDrinker– Excellent.
@Rosie– Now that’s what I like to hear.
@Jayne– Imagine if “reply to all” DID apply to BCC’s. Oh, the pranks that would ensue!
@MyStarbucks– I’m glad you liked it! I wanted to make it into a video, but I don’t have the time. Text will have to suffice for my work until something changes (a co-blogger or something).
23 Jason // Oct 5, 2007 at 3:01 pm
When I was in the Navy, our ship (like all other ones) had a LAN on which we each had our own email accounts (among other things). Seeing as how we were all young or young-ish guys, there was a lot of porn and other less-then-Christian stuff being forwarded around.
Woe to the idiot that accidentally decided to forward it to “all users,” which included all Officers, the Captain, the Chaplain, and any women that were serving on board.
24 Christine OKelly // Oct 8, 2007 at 2:24 am
I LOVE when that happens! Kind of a corporate voyeurism… In a desperately boring corporate environment - that’s one of the most exciting things that could happen all week!
My most embarrassing email moments have happened when I’m not careful and let Outlook prefill the email address after typing in the first few letters - I know for a FACT that I’ve sent at least 3 emails to a completely unrelated person - no telling how many times I’ve done it that I DON’T know about!?!
25 Darin // Oct 8, 2007 at 10:15 am
I love it when that happens. Even in our department of about 35 now, we have our own email distribution list. Somone will accidentally reply to all once per day on an email sent to the entire team with a few snide comments. I think it is my favorite!
26 Chuck Westbrook // Oct 8, 2007 at 2:28 pm
@Jason– Wow. I can only imagine the dread that shot through said idiot upon realization of his or her mistake…
@Christine OKelly– Bingo! It’s cause for celebration!
@Darin– Send them my way, friend.
27 Five workplace practices that should be over. Now. » Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk // Oct 9, 2007 at 11:40 am
[…] Now reply to all is only a way to annoy people and make yourself look foolish. […]
28 Employee Evolution - Email Etiquette: “Forward” at your own risk // Oct 12, 2007 at 6:30 am
[…] good “email etiquette.” Don’t write too long, know the difference between “reply” and “reply to all” and of course, spell check! Everyone mentions the responsibility you have to your own writing, […]
29 Recent entertainment: great blog and car hunt « Korean Adoptee Bride // Oct 12, 2007 at 8:58 am
[…] Now reply to all is only a way to annoy people and make yourself look foolish. […]
30 Friday Offtopic: I would rather not be… « Inovis Blog // Oct 12, 2007 at 4:00 pm
[…] 2. Reply-to-All Button The epitome of mailbox clutter, use of this feature will stall productivity and can be hazardous to your career. […]
31 Joshua Long // Nov 18, 2007 at 11:56 pm
I think the reply-all faux pas is more common in the big corporate world. The one I hate more than anything, and happens more frequently, is the inability to locate the BCC field for mass emails and the resulting prostitution of everyone’s email address.
Leave a Comment