Ban the BCC

I have a few issues with emails using the dreaded Blind (or Blank) Carbon (or Courtesy) Copy. First of all, it's not blind to everyone. Only the recipient is in the dark.

If you are bcc'ed, you know it. What am I supposed to think when I get bcc'ed? Was I placed in the bcc to protect my identity? To hide the fact that I got the email? Call me cynical but I believe most bccs are used to hide the fact that I got the email.

Doesn't that seem a little silly at work? I understand bcc for large groups of people who may not know each other. Protecting their privacy is obvious for those times.

Funny thing is I don't usually see this in my personal email accounts. I can get a joke, funny story, or obligatory cute picture of a friend's baby and see my name jumbled in with their family and everyone else they know. I do get annoyed when I get fifty emails resulting from Aunt Helen in Idaho hitting, "reply to all" to comment on the number of teeth the baby was showing in the picture.

Anyway, at work, the bcc is usually used for devious reasons. In my experience, it is used to share the responsibility yet deny credit. Have I mentioned how much I loathe my own gender as coworkers?

If you haven't figured it out already, allowing your insecurities into the workplace won't gain you high marks with me.