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We’ve all done it on occasion; some people do it almost without thinking. It’s the office equivalent of a school child raising his hand and crying “Miss! Miiiissssss! I’m worried Richard’s probably not going to deal with what I’ve got to saaaay!“.

I refer of course to the “power CC”. The habit of CC’ing a senior member of staff (relative to the sender or, worse still, the receiver) in an otherwise hum drum conversation, primarily as a means of elevating its importance, and also demonstrating a lack of trust in the recipient as somebody who is capable of properly prioritising their work.

It’s closely related to the Reply-All e-mail which seems to only ever grow. More people are added to the distribution list, even as the subject drifts further away from the original point, or has settled to one liner responses or, worse still, jokes.

But the Power CC remains my irritant. I’ve certainly had to use it, but like to think it’s as a matter of last resort. When a colleague remains unaffected by your repeated requests to complete a key task that, in not being completed, is holding up your plans. Ensuring “The Manager” is aware of your polite request (despite having asked politely) can certainly help. But of course, it risks becoming a nuclear arms race as a defensive reply is required to explain all the other things that need to be done. Invariably the managerteacher just lets the kids get on with it and work it out for themselves.

But an occasional prod-in-the-back with a Power CC, or CC’ing them at the managers request (so they’re “in the loop”) is one thing. CC’ing, on your own volition, when it’s a simple query (”could you look at this please”) is (to me) the e-mail etiquette equivalent of shouting loudly and repeatedly, and stamping your feet.

It’s not so much “can you please take a look at this” as “you will drop everything you are doing and help me“. As time passes and conversations grow, it just feels more and more petulant.

Which is why I invariably delete names from CC lists when I presume most people are not largely going to care very much about the subject, just so long as it gets sorted. And they don’t need to see every technical detail being discussed via their inbox.

So there. I hate the Power CC. And I’m going to tell teacher on you if you use it on me.