Avoid BCC mistakes

- Picture this, your team receives an email from your manager, Serena, reminding several of your teammates that they're behind on their monthly reports. The tone on her email is friendly. Both teammates write back explaining their situations. One is waiting for a client contract. The other is traveling. The situation seems straightforward and reasonable, no big deal. But then Serena's boss, the vice president of the company, responds to the same email thread. Suddenly it's clear that Serena blind copied her boss on the message. Your teammates feel betrayed, and you're also wondering why she sent this note behind your backs. Using the BCC feature on emails can be dangerous. Now everyone on your team is questioning Serena's motives. Why did she privately copy her boss? Does the boss know there were legitimate reasons for your two teammates to be running late? As you can see, blind copied emails raise questions you don't want people asking. They give people a reason to question if they can trust you, which is the last thing you want tied to your professional reputation. They can also come across as manipulative and may put those who are blind copied in an awkward position. If you receive a BCC'd message, are you supposed to pretend you don't know the information? Act surprised when you hear it? This is all just messy. Serena may have legitimately needed to loop her boss in on the message. She can keep her boss informed by simply forwarding the initial message. Sure, it's an extra step to write FYI on the subject and forward the message once you've already sent it. But the seconds you spend on this step can save you hours of agony down the line. Now, there are scenarios when using BCC makes sense strategically. For example, you can blind copy yourself so that you can easily find a message that you want to keep in your inbox or save in a folder. Obviously, messages get saved in the sent folder, so this is purely for your convenience. You can blind copy an entire list to get information to a group of people without worrying that the list will be abused or that the recipients will receive a bunch of follow-up emails. Years ago, I coordinated a large event involving celebrities and elected officials who did not publicly share their email addresses. I would've damaged my reputation with this group if I sent messages that disclosed their private email addresses. Instead, I sent updates and logistical information to a list of BCC recipients. If anyone mistakenly hit reply all, the message would only come to me and my team who was carbon copied. So the blind carbon copy function has its purpose, but as a general rule, I say beware the BCC.