Another Reply All

How many times have you logged onto your email and have almost double the amount you typically receive since last logging in. And as you go through them, you realize the additional 50% are people within your organization that are replying all to an email someone sent out about nothing that is mission critical but rather, as one example, an industry news article. “Thanks for Sharing” one reads, "Great Article" reads another,  and that list of shorthanded responses goes on and on. Was that necessary? I think not. I now refer to these people as the “Reply All Just To Get Noticed Crowd”.

I am talking about the crowd that replies all to emails while providing absolutely no value or substance in those replies. When receiving an email with a large number of folks on it my advice to you is this; Digest the content, determine a proper response or if a response is truly necessary before replying all. If this is an email based on a project your team is working on and there is an email string of communications containing updates or action items, then please, by all means, reply all. However, if your VP, Senior Staff member, etc., sends an email on the latest industry news,  advising to check out a recent article,  or something of the likes, please, for the love of humanity, read it, and move on. Do NOT reply all with “Thanks for sharing” or “Awesome article”. Hint: everyone sees right through this. If one does it, 50 will follow. Because by all means, they must make it known that they too have read the article. The result is your email being spammed full for the day (this number of course varies based on company size but you hopefully see my point.. and if you're wondering why I am so begrudged by this, I work for a division with hundreds of people).

If you want to get noticed, do it through your work. Be the best you can be and let your KPI’s speak. Hard work will get you noticed, great work will get you promoted. Not a meaningless reply all to show you are online at 8am.

I recently read an article from Forbes about 7 Ways to Get Noticed at Work. You can read up on these 7 great points below in greater detail by clicking the link I provided at the end of this article. And guess what, Replying All just to get noticed and not providing any real content or benefit to whom you are sending the mass email to is NOT one of them. The 7 points are;

1.       Take initiative.

2.       Build rapport, everywhere.

3.       Participate in the office’s extracurricular activities.

4.       Do business development.

5.       Be a team player.

6.       Never talk smack.

7.       Speak Up.

So remember, replying all with no true substance does more harm than good. We all see through it. I don’t intend for this article to mean you cannot acknowledge you received or read an email, but send the person a note directly and that moving forward, we all think before sending that reply all just to get noticed.

Forbes Article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashleystahl/2015/04/03/7-ways-to-get-noticed-at-work/#19f447a54221

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About: Christopher Langer is a seasoned Talent Acquisition professional who has supported startups to fortune 500 companies throughout the United States and abroad. He has since expanded his role to support the areas of Strategic Marketing, Social Media and Brand Recognition. In his downtime he enjoys learning about early American History, Fishing and wrangling Puggles… (I’m kind of a cowboy).

For daily thoughts and news, follow me on Twitter: @JobsFromLanger