What is proper E-mail Etiquette when forwarding personal e-mails sent to you to a third party? By Cc:ing the Sender when you forward their e-mail make it “O.K.”? No it does not! That e-mail was sent to you for your eyes only!
Whether it be a business or personal e-mail common courtesy would dictate you don’t forward e-mails sent to you, to others, without the original sender’s knowledge. That said, we all know people who do this every day. And as I am sure you can agree, rarely is it for positive reasons. Usually its to make fun of, e-tattle or to just plain gossip. For those who do this, know this practice will come back to haunt you one day. You do so to others; they do the same to you.
All e-mails are naturally copyright protected by the author. So in order to forward an e-mail sent to you to another person, you should get the writer’s permission to do so first.
Cc’ing doesn’t negate your responsibility to ask for permission. Notifying the Sender as you forward their e-mail does not replace asking before you take action. The Sender may not want their words to you published to others. That is their choice to make — not yours.
E-mails are sent and written to the party for which they were intended, not to be sent to others without the Sender’s knowledge or permission. By Cc’ing without asking you risk the Sender getting upset due to the possibility they didn’t want the content shared. Even if you feel there is nothing personal or that the e-mail is about a “common subject” that is subjective to each person’s definition of what can be considered common.
So show you get it and are not a sneaky gossiper. Always ask first before sharing any e-mail sent to you.
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first of all this is a really helpfull tip, would you pls. help on this issue,
what about replying the sender via phone, would i be ignoring those on the CC list of the original mail? if so how should i react when some issue needs to be clarified by phone?
Hey, Wessam:
Thanks for stopping by! When it comes to Cc:, you would only Cc: others if your reply was something they needed to be aware of. If your comments only apply to the Sender and are of no interest or consequence to those in the Cc: field — don’t use Cc:.
If it is clear clarification is needed and that would involve everyone in the conversation then by all means Cc: those who need to know. They key is to try and alleviate unnecessary e-mails to those who don’t need to be aware of the content within. Too many simply hit Reply to All regardless of if “all” need or even want the reply.
Whether by e-mail, IM or phone, the basic rules and considerations apply. It is up to you to look at the situation and use your discretion to use technology effectively and efficiently.
HTH!
Judith
I forwarded an email of beautiful underground caverns but failed to bcc my email buddies because I would not have captured the pictures to forward because of my server’s application. I could not copy and paste either so I sent anyhow. Someone made a nasty remark about my signage signature and sent their remark to all the people on my to: list whom they did not know.
Is this nerve to forward a nasty comment to people I sent a harmless email to:
Hey, Tedi:
Thanks for stopping by!
The use of Reply to All to send a nasty comment to the original Sender is certainly rude and inappropriate. But the fact you exposed those addresses in the To: field — for whatever reason — left the door open for this to happen.
If you can’t use BCc: for whatever reason — you then need to take the time and make the effort to send separate e-mails to each of your contacts to avoid this from happening. If you don’t want to take the time to do that, then you need to think about if your e-mail is worth sending in the first place.
I do have an article on my site that covers this for you: http://www.netmanners.com/email-etiquette/proper-use-of-reply-to-all/
HTH!
(snipped…)
so, in your professional opinion, being all about “netmanners” and knowing about email etiquette an such, do i really have any ground to stand on? Is what i did worse than what she did? I know i have every right to be angry, but was my crime comparable to what she did to me? I’m not really the type that looks to others for advice, in anything, but it’s all i think about at night before i fall asleep (which is why i’ve passed out to TV shows nightly for the better part of a year now) and any other time my mind isnt focused on a task.
(personally i say no, what i did was less wrong than what she did, because first of all, she willingly gave me the password, and didnt change it, even after i hinted that i “kinda sorta” still knew what it was, combined with the old addage “Ignorance is bliss”. She didnt know i was reading her emails, and i didnt discuss them with anyone or spread information found there, and therefore it never affected her in any real way shape or form, but for me, she made blatant attempts to either cast me in a bad light, or make me look crazy or lame or whatever…)
but i await your response, if it comes
Hey, Paul…
I’m sorry to hear about that situation. I can tell it has been very emotional and trying for you — to say the least. I snipped the majority of your post to protect your privacy. You know what it said and you’ll understand my response. ;-)
As you know, because you had that password didn’t mean you had permission to use it and be a voyeur. That was as you said a breach of trust. But that is done and you now know what you know.
What this boils down to is why would you still be thinking about someone that talked about you in that manner? I think you have to work on being busy, finding things to keep your mind off of her and to move on. It is not healthy for you to be thinking about someone who spoke so poorly of you behind your back for this long. If you can’t do it on your own, maybe see about getting some help from a counselor or someone else you can trust to talk to about this so you can understand and move on.
I do know it is easier for me to type this than for you to do it. But I can tell you are tired of this situation and you seem to want to be able to leave this behind you. So do so. Make an effort that whenever you think about her you shake your head and get up and make a point of doing/thinking something else. This is in your control to control — you do choose what you think about — it is YOUR brain — so just do it!
Work on hanging around with true friends and you’ll find a companion that talks nicely about you — whether you are there to hear it or not. HTH! ;-)