OMG - Reply All

[tripleshot]

Why is this concept so hard for people? I work at a very large global company and someone started a reply all to a company credit card notice sent to a distribution list of all card holders. They couldn't figure out why they were getting copied in all the emails, etc. Finally after like 25 emails, one of the Sr VPs replied and told them to knock it off. Really people?

[mrshabious]

We have that too (smaller office). For us, it is people making what they think are witty quips, that everyone will definately want to read!

Several times the Director has asked to take him off the distribution because he has work he needs to do. People get the hint pretty quickly after that.

[Wines Not Whines]

We've had a few instances where someone accidentally sent an email to our entire org (which has thousands of people) without doing a bcc. This was followed by hundreds of follow-up reply-all responses with people saying, "Why am I getting these emails?" and the always amusing reply-all requests for people to stop using reply-all.

[countthestars]

They ended up taking away our reply all feature because people at my company couldn't handle it. It cracks me up.

[egishere]

Oct 31, 2012 11:33:47 GMT -5 countthestars said:

They ended up taking away our reply all feature because people at my company couldn't handle it. It cracks me up.

Exactly! Only certain people at my company are allowed to email to large distribution lists.

[mrsjuleshs]

I HATE reply all and it is a favorite past time of 1/2 the people in my office.

[RitzyHeifer]

I'm on several listservs that this gets abused - people don't realize replying to the listserv address sends to everyone and not the original sender. Usually a slew of "Thanks!" or some witticism.

Then begins the barrage of "Realize you're replying to everyone!" "You're clogging up our inboxes, dillhole!" Er, so are you - just message the offender if you really must speak out about it.

[cjeanette]

I think it should not exist. /gavel

[marclovesme]

Oct 31, 2012 11:43:22 GMT -5 egishere said:

Oct 31, 2012 11:33:47 GMT -5 countthestars said:

They ended up taking away our reply all feature because people at my company couldn't handle it. It cracks me up.

Exactly! Only certain people at my company are allowed to email to large distribution lists.

My prior firm limited who could send emails to certain internal distribution lists. Not sure why.

This was really annoying at times, especially when I left, as people I didn't communicate with regularly in other offices had no clue. I couldn't even send a nice goodbye to the folks in my office of less than 15, so I just added everyone on one email. Nice try list blocking me prior firm!

[tripleshot]

3 more people replied to all after the Sr VP of HR told them to knock it off. The sad thing is, I think they're clueless. How do people like this support themselves and survive on a daily basis? I agree with you guys that the option should be removed.

[definitelyO]

We had an IT guy and a user going back and forth via reply all and it was getting ugly. seems finally someone told them to knock it off.

but - I work with people who will respond to message that I was copied on w/o copying me - then I have to follow up to see if it was resolved. in those cases reply all would be helpful.

you wouldn't think "REPLY ALL" would need a tutorial "Reply All for Dummies"

[DarcyLongfellow]

At my old firm, the worst offenders were the very senior partners. At first I thought they were just clueless and didn't understand how email works (a valid assumption considering there were still partners hanging around who refused to have a computer on their desk), but no -- it turns out they just wanted to brag about their connections or expertise. Good times!

"Reply all" wasn't blocked at my old firm, but it was hidden. You didn't have a button on Outlook to "reply all," but you could go up to a menu and select it. That cut down on a lot of the accidental stuff.

[Redpoppy]

The last reply all fiasco led to a person replying all that we could stop getting this if we removed ourselves from the distribution list, with steps.

IT then spent hours restoring hundreds of people's distribution lists.

If I get something obviously sent in error to everyone (you can tell since the email is different) I just delete it.