E-mail has become a big part of our lives, when e-mail goes down, our lives shut down. There are so many things you can do with e-mail from e-mailing 300 people in a matter of seconds to just talking it up with friends in China. There is one thing e-mail related that should not be abused. The BCC function. Oh the BCC, the Blind Carbon Copy, also known as the Blind Courtesy Copy and the Big Chicken Coworker.

To all of you who are unfamiliar, the BCC function basically lets people see an e-mail that is sent, but people who are addressed in the TO: or CC: line of an e-mail don’t know this person has received the e-mail. There are many times I’ve used the BCC function whether it be to keep my supervisors in the loop as to what is going on while interacting with a client, or to joke around with one of my friends who doesnt know, and even playing Mr. Matchmaker and clueing my friend into knowing what is being said about them to a potential love interest. The BCC function can be great to be secretive, but when used in deceptive ways, not cool.

There are times that the BCC function should not be used, resulting in you looking like a coward, and no one wants to look like a coward, right?

These include:

– When you’re chatting about someone and decide you want to stir up some trouble by BCCing the person you are talking about. NOT COOL

– After hours of e-mail conversation throughout the day and things aren’t going the way you think they will be, don’t BCC someone at the 11th hour showing them the whole e-mail chain. NOT COOL

– When making fun of someone who is one of your good friends, don’t BCC people you aren’t sure are that persons friend. NOT COOL

You never know who is having a bad day, whether it be due to a lack of food consumption, constipation, or perhaps they forgot to take their Xanax or Prozac, so watch what you say via e-mail because they may decide to be a coward and BCC someone else to deal with the problem. A great rule of thumb to go by, if you feel that someone needs to see something in an e-mail chain, add them to the CC line. Bad news bears if you get caught being a deceptive coward.

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