Advice needed on countering email BCC in workplace email (Vanity)

Vanity Post | 12/8/2010 | jili

[jilliane]

I sincerely apologize for the vanity post. I need advice from intelligent people in regards to a workplace problem. I've searched the internet, forums, career advice sites and can't find any relevant advice.

[jilliane]

A new director was hired for our department about 5 months ago.

He preaches transparency and claims that everything he does in managing the department is open. However, he is a micromanager whose actions suggest he suspects the worst in others. He is a poor listener because he’s distracted with his own thoughts, he interrupts people constantly, and arrogantly pushes his opinions on all. He disrespects others time by calling impromptu meetings that last for hours and then lectures everyone about what they are doing wrong, even though he must first question every detail because he has never done the job he’s criticizing. He constantly closes doors that were open and meets behind them with co-workers. I’ve been here 10 years and our department has never needed closed door meetings with co-workers.

He pontificates via email routinely and is intoxicated with his own verbosity. He bloviates so many emails per day with orders (even if the orders have nothing to do with your job), that when you follow up on the requests, he forgot what he asked for in the first place.

OK, here's the problem...

He recently started including me intermittently on email BCC (the intended recipient doesn't know I have been included or that their comments are viewed by others). Sometimes the email discussion is benign but they are annoying because they waste my time.

Recently I should not have been included on several emails and the senders would not have shared the comments had they known others were reading the email. No one ever has shared communications like this in the past so it’s been a trustworthy channel to communicate needs and issues.

These shared BCC emails included sensitive remarks a person made to him about a co-worker to which he replied (with me on BCC) with patronizing agreement that they both concur the co-worker uses bad judgment (by implication of BCC, he suggests I'm on that page, which I'm not).

He BCC'd numerous people on an email "privately" intended to his boss just to show off how stylistically he was able to "manage up" dissatisfaction about something the boss published.

He then BCC'd several people to an email he sent to me, lecturing me, ironically, on how he'd like me to communicate respectfully to his boss. The email also contained forwarded copy of a private email he distributed from someone else.

Yesterday, I picked up the phone and confirmed my suspicion with him directly that he'd in fact BCC'd the boss on the email correcting me and learned separately that he also BCC'd co-workers on the email reprimanding me like I was in 3rd grade. I called his boss and apologized if the tone was disrespectful but that I was documenting a workplace issue that only he could resolve.

There are at least 10 people I suspect are being BCC'd in various emails intermittently depending on who is being discussed. I would not expect this behavior from a teen at work, let alone our 60-year old department head.

He has created distrustful communications, used BCC as a power tool to fool people they are in his trust. I have since told 3 of them that their emails are being distributed. Everyone seems afraid that they’ll lose their jobs so they all treat him like he’s a god.

I am angry at enormous work distraction, the gossip feel of it all, the human manipulation, the betrayal of trust, the eroding of confidence in co-workers in each other, and I simply don’t know what to do to right the wrong. His boss defends him because it was his decision to hire the guy.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. We have no H/R department or grievance channels.

[bareford101]

IMO, blind copies are just that. a way to include others without anyone knowing who got a copy. of course it is sneaky.. but this director seems to choose this method of management.

Someone, hopefully someone he feels is a peer, needs to get this problem straightened out... and without bcc ing anyone.

[dirtboy]

Is this guy in tight with one of the owners or the president? If not, I’d wait for him to pi** off the wrong person with these antics.

[knittnmom]

We used to bcc a former supervisor on things, then she’d “reply all” and our ruse was discovered. You could make it a practice to “reply all” to every message - including those on which you were bcc’d.

[Mr. K]

Let me guess- This is a government agency or he USED TO be an employee of a government agency

I have seen this before in people who leave or retire from a government job to start their double-dipping- collecting retirement froma their ‘20 and out’ years of gubmint service while holding another full-time job.

These people are un-trainable- this is how they think the REAL WORLD works too.

[Disambiguator]

One of the very few appropriate uses of BCC is to hide email addresses from multiple recipients to prevent spam. The thing is, you BCC everyone on the distribution, not just select recipients.

This guy sounds like a real piece of work. Maybe you should get with all your coworkers and threaten his boss with quitting en masse unless he is let go. It sounds like an intractable situation.

[Optimist]

Reply All: Why am I getting this?

[Keith in Iowa]

>>>Any advice is greatly appreciated. We have no H/R department or grievance channels.

Absent that, have you/can you talk to his boss?? CEO??

[IamConservative]

Tough spot..

Couple of thoughts.

- I do not believe our e-mail systems copies bcc’s on replies unless you do a “Reply All.” Not certain. I rarely bcc.

- Might try read receipts to see if that gets you any more info.

Otherwise, I would only use e-mail if you absolutely have to and certainly would not editorialize at all.

As I’m fond of saying: “Go darken his doorway” and provide opinions to his questions in person if opinion is needed.

[Doogle]

....save and document EVERYTHING!

[Dan(9698)]

It sounds like you work in a liberal University.

Buck up, it is normal.

[La Lydia]

Save all the emails and threads. Print them out when no one is around, for your own protection and others’, and take them home. Carry out his requests regardless of whether he remembers them, and document both the request and your response. Otherwise, ignore or nod pleasantly but noncommittally. Do not mention. Have no opinion. Do not engage. You can’t change him, you can only change your reaction to him. Nor can you control who he BCC’s on his emails. The guy will self-destruct.

[delacoert]

Any advice is greatly appreciated. We have no H/R department or grievance channels.

If you can't tolerate the style of your boss and the workplace environment, then do everybody a favor and find a new job.

Whiny, little shits who seek to use human resource triangulation deserver the union they end up in.

[thackney]

Perhaps you should follow his instruction and communicate, respectively, with his boss. This would be far more effective if at least three of you each do this. It can be done as a group or individually if done in a short time frame.

And always good advice anytime, anywhere, keep your resume up to date and keep up contacts with others outside your company but in your industry.

[Badabing Badablonde]

I thought the REPLY ALL option never includes the BCC recipients....

[stylecouncilor]

I think most of what you wrote in post #1 would be a good thing to email him. Be sure to BCC everyone. ;)

[sappy]

when i find myself in that situation “gossipy feel” and I am required to respond but am not sure who else may receive the email or be “bcc’d” if the organization and recipents are small enough, i generally forward the email, re-enter, mannually, the recipients I can see and delete “fwd”. If it’s a large managed list, I’m not sure how you could go about it but that is my personal way of doing things when things take on a nastier or more personal nature and you are not sure who ELSE is being “bcc’d”. chances are, you aren’t the only one.

[USNBandit]

You could BCC the director the next time you supervisor BCCs you with negative comments about the director.

One thing I have found is that very few people read their emails before sending them. Especially in an environment where people feathers are getting ruffled I always reread my emails, trying to twist them in negative ways, before I hit send.

Another important thing is to use email correctly. Use it to your advantage to documents other peoples actions. Know when to not use email to protect yourself. I would hesitate to send emails to this supe that were critical of anybody since you know he has the propensity to BCC them. It sounds like this guy is a real winner.

Hey, you don't work in federal government, do you?

[VRWCmember]

jilliane,

If you have no HR or Ethics department to handle harrassment claims, your only recourse is to go directly to his boss with your concerns. If that is your only avenue and you choose to pursue it, you should keep both an electronic and hard copy of every single document that you can get your hands on that shows he has been doing this. (You need to have an electronic copy on some media other than the work computer to which you may lose access once you make a complaint.) If your boss or his boss then retaliates against you for raising your complaint, he is violating federal law. At that point, you will probably need to have a good labor lawyer on your side.

[9YearLurker]

Sounds like a first-class jerk.

Of course, you should speak respectfully to your boss’s boss. But I agree as posted above that you could lay low until his behavior does him in with someone else. However, if you want to address it, I think the thing to do would be to address it with him directly, privately, behind his closed door. All tact you could generate would be useful.