Is Blind Copying (BCC) Dishonest or Just Plain Rude?

Now let's be clear, I don't mean using the BCC in a mass email so you don't share people's emails across a wide distribution list. What I do mean is the use of BCC to keep someone else informed of an email conversation, without telling the original addressee.

bstabMy aversion to this practice is long standing, and not something that I've personally encountered recently, fortunately. Rather, it started many years ago when I was the Operations Director of a large training business. The rapid growth of the business was managed through strategic acquisition and we grew to operating 10 training centres across the UK. Each region had a manager, Scotland, North and South. Two off these managers did not get on, in fact they got on like a house on fire, and you have seen the destruction that entails. But, in the corporate world, professionalism means working for the benefit of the business and personal feelings should not impinge.

Every opportunity they had to show the other in a bad light was taken, whilst each claimed the moral high ground, and as email wars commenced I became BCCd into every vitriolic and sniping email. Including such statements as, ‘In a purely professional attempt at clarity, I am using very small words and a large font in the hope you will finally grasp at least 50% of the issue'.

Perhaps even worse was a BCC when one ‘friend' emailed another ‘friend' saying that they hoped they didn't get found out for taking a day's unauthorised absence after claiming to be sick. No one likes a backstabber.

Now I would argue that all organisations should have a clear statement in their email policy that prohibits the use of BCC. I do know and appreciate that any email can be forwarded but the use of BCC seems sneaky and underhand.

Why do people use BCC

• The sender of a BCC message wants you to support them without letting the other person know that you know.
• Someone is sloping their shoulders and offloading their problems to you.
• It is not nice, it is sneaky and is effectively talking behind a colleagues back.
• As a manager, it creates the problem of not being sure of what you are supposed to know and not know.
• And are you supposed to take action over something that has been fed to you in this manner?

This is not about whistle blowing this is about the integrity of your communication systems, if people lose confidence in the confidentiality of the process then it will damage the team you have spent so long building