Copying managers in on emails

[sobrique]

I've just had a stinking weasel respond to a tentive query.
I was looking along the lines of 'is there any point in us upgrading your computation servers'.

And his response?

"we pay x per year for Unix. If you need to upgrade the hardware then great.....but at your cost not ours!"

Copied to my manager.

Now is it just me who thinks that this is a stinking weasel tactic? I find it take remarkably pot shots at someone, and copy it to someone else in the department.

Now all fair enough. If there's a discussion going on, that several people are a party to, a conversation that need to be kept up to date, then fine.

But .. I dunno, just replying with a snotty response, and copying it to senior management just strikes me as remarkably irritating.

Especially when the initial message was a 'what would your reaction be to...'.

Bah. Users. Can't put up with them, can't just go postal, get the AEG out of your car boot and chase them around the office screaming "you're a bunch of bloody buggering shits" whilst taking pot shots at them with a BB gun.

Comments

[karen2205]

I suggest a preemptive strike by copying your manager in on the original email you send out when you think there's a high likelihood that someone'll do this.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

The problem with that is that then I would be the stinking weasel.

I mean, we all work for the same company, can we not just have a discussion about an idea without having to get political about it?

[karen2205]

Ah - I misread that - I thought he was an external customer.

I need more sleep.

[eithnepdb.livejournal.com]

Bah. Users. Can't put up with them, can't just go postal, get the AEG out of your car boot and chase them around the office screaming "you're a bunch of bloody buggering shits" whilst taking pot shots at them with a BB gun.

Oooohhher...

if you do I want to come along.

[lisekit.livejournal.com]

Yup, that's stinking. If you're going to flame someone, that's one (umpleasant) thing; at least that can be ignored and deleted. If you carp at someone and cc it to another party, so it's out in a wider domain, that's pretty low.

On the upside, the other party might actually take your side.

[(Anonymous)]

ahm...

just take the whole conversation, put it in one document, mail it to the manager, put the weasel on copy, write a comment a long the lines of FYI, or to clarify the situation...

then again... you are the admin... how about diverting away some of his resources, slowly, such that he will find himself in need of an upgrade that he now has more incentive to pay for. After all, its his expanding needs, which might lead to an increase in the annual fees he was mentioning...?

mind you this is written from the point of view of a relatively computer illiterate geek who was bored at luch.

Then again, putting managers on copy is sometimes the only way to get irritating lazy and incompetant idiots to get a move on in their everlasting struggle to actually do something productive.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

Yes, sometimes you need to get a management level decision.
You know, where 'budgets' are involved, or you really need someone to take an action, but you're not their boss.

But that sort of thing is, IMHO, reserved for that sort of situation. It's the whole playground "I'm tellin' on you!"

I must admit, there exists an abuse of power temptation. You know, along the lines of setting up my throne room in the reception area and requiring everyone to make their obseiance before the can log in, have disk storage, backup recoveries etc.

Unfortunately, I'm constrained by professional ethics. Doesn't stop me thinking about it though...

[nuala.livejournal.com]

Hack into said weasel's email, send out highly inappropriate emails, bcc'ed to his boss. Oh, wait, that would be rude, wouldn't it. I'll leave it to you to define 'inappropriate', then.

Or force his computer to reboot at really inconvenient times. That would suck.

Things I learned when working in the corporate world. Don't get involved in office politics and don't piss off your Techies. In fact, offer them fresh bagels and coffee when they come around to fix things. :)

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

OOOh, can I come work at your company? ;p

[nuala.livejournal.com]

Hehehe. Tech support and bagel bribery. :-D

[deathboy.livejournal.com]

yes, that is most rude.

if your original mail was included, there's a high chance the CC'd party will also consider this person a stinky weasel, too, mind.

kill 'em in the face with bricks!

oh yes you can

[jambon-gris.livejournal.com]

"Bah. Users. Can't put up with them, can't just go postal, get the AEG out of your car boot and chase them around the office screaming "you're a bunch of bloody buggering shits" whilst taking pot shots at them with a BB gun."

I think you could you know. You could refer to it as tech support customer service interface hadware with a rapid comunication capability and a point and click interface.
You could up grade their systenm to a logartihmic based processer with sliding scale algorythms and a low friction user interface (a slide rule).

If your message was included in the reply then well it wont be you who looks silly anyway. Person X has just sent a message which could easily be translated as "Hi im a wanker whos harassing you staff and waisting your time"
If he/she/it didnt sent on the original message to you manager.