CEO demands to be copied on every email only to end up triggering an 'email apocalypse' for himself
Instead of a very generic 'Dear Colleague' email, they wanted all employees to be addressed properly.
Most bosses want to micromanage everything! They want to be part of all communications, whether important or not. However, history stands as a testimony that micromanaging often backfires on them, leaving them scrambling to keep control. That's exactly what happened when a CEO and HR head accidentally flooded their own inboxes with a rule they made. A person (u/idktbhfamlmao) posted the story in a now-deleted Reddit post on November 24.
The author confirmed the incident took place at their friend's office — something they thought was too funny to gatekeep. The CEO and the HR head announced that they wanted to be aware of all internal communication. They insisted, "Please copy us on ALL internal communications. Announcements, reminders, birthday emails, everything." Everyone in the office followed, and nobody had any issues until the HR department decided to go a bit fancy in their email request. Well, the HR wanted to make internal announcements more personalized. So, instead of a very generic "Dear Colleague" email, they wanted all employees to be addressed properly. "So the HR team hits send on this personalized announcement to the entire company… and CCs the CEO and Head of HR, just like they demanded," they recounted. So far, all good, but wait for the real goof-up! As expected, every employee received their own unique email, but the CEO and HR head? They were notified every time a worker was sent a personalized email. In no time, their inboxes were full of thousands of emails. "They caused their own email apocalypse, and HR was just following instructions, lmao," the author wrote. The HR head was furious and shouted at the person who had sent the emails. The HR head also ordered him to stop sending the remaining emails, but he explained that it wasn't possible.
The CEO and HR head had specifically asked to be informed about every internal communication, and when it happened, they blamed the wrong person. Bosses who want to monitor their employees' every move often end up in such situations, which impacts the overall productivity of the office. Nearly 59% of people surveyed reported being micromanaged at some point in their careers, according to Redline Group. Among them, 55% reported it affected their productivity, and 68% said it hampered their morale.
Meanwhile, reacting to the post, u/workinprogress1040 commented, "We had an email crash like that back in the 90s. I work for a very large organization with employees in all 50 states. Well over 10k people. One employee sent an email to what they thought was a group address for their building, announcing there were cookies left over from a meeting in a conference room. They picked all the employees' (>10k) email addresses by mistake. Then the 'reply all' and 'remove me' emails started. People who were complaining that they never had free cookies where they were. People are telling others to stop replying to all. People are offering to bring in cookies if everyone would just stop complaining. People sharing recipes/their opinions on what kind of cookies are best, etc. IT had to shut the email system down for a couple of hours while they scrubbed it. I always picture the original sender hiding under their desk by the end."
u/nighthawk1980 shared, "My favorite inbox buster is when someone sends a global email (either intentionally or accidentally), and a dozen people reply, 'Don't think this is for me,' by hitting reply all. One afternoon, there must have been 30 emails bouncing around, and at around 20, a big boss jumps in and says, 'Please stop hitting reply all to say this email wasn't for you; just reply to sender or say nothing.' Then 2 minutes later, another reply all: 'This isn't for me.'"
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