Imagine you’re drafting an email about a sensitive project when you realize you need to keep your supervisor in the loop. You decide to Bcc her on the email. Later, the rest of the team finds out. How does this make them feel?
Why Bcc’ing the Boss Is a Bad Practice
Email continues to be one of the most common ways people communicate at work — and one of the most common ways people miscommunicate at work. The Cc and Bcc functions can corrode trust and cloud intentions. To explore how senders and recipients interpret the use of these tools, the authors conducted a series of five experimental studies in which a total of 694 working adults participated. What were the implications of these findings for organizations and supervisors? First, they clearly underscore the idea that Bcc-ing the supervisor is best avoided. While Cc-ing the supervisor is a more acceptable communication strategy than the use of the Bcc-option, it can still elicit uncomfortable and negative feelings. Forwarding emails is a common practice for many of us and may at times present a solution to the Bcc problem — but it is also not a flawless solution. The most effective solution is to rewrite an email to personally address a team supervisor. Such an email could be framed as an update and would achieve the administrative goals of Bcc-ing — to keep the supervisor up to date — without alienating the rest of the team.