Colleague copies his manager on all emails to me

[Anonymous]

A colleague copies his manager on most of his emails to me. His manager rarely gets involved/responds, but seeing them copied makes me anxious and feel like there is some passive-aggressive monitoring of my work that’s taking place.

Can I ask him to stop copying his manager? Or should I address this with his manager first since my relationship with this colleague is a bit rocky.

[Anonymous]

It may have nothing to do with you. Maybe his manager just wants to be aware of what he's working on.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like the manager is monitoring your colleague's work, not yours.

[Anonymous]

I often use cc’s on emails as a management tool. It’s easy and effective in my line of work. So, it wouldn’t help if you asked one of my direct reports with whom I use this tool to stop. And if you addressed it with me I’d think you were out of line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like the manager is monitoring your colleague's work, not yours.

+1
My first thought was that he’s been asked to include his manager on all of his emails because of himself, not you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like the manager is monitoring your colleague's work, not yours.

+1
My first thought was that he’s been asked to include his manager on all of his emails because of himself, not you.

Normally I’d a green but the OP refers to a “rocky” relationship that is likely relevant here

[Anonymous]

I noticed a 'rocky' relationship with a coworker who I later noticed was 'cc'ing her manager on emails to me. Turns out many sense a 'rocky' relationship with her so I surmise it is her.
I don't recommend addressing it with either party. Just stay professional and keep it business.

[Anonymous]

Your colleague is likely being micromanaged. I know a department like this, nothing goes out without the managers eyes on it. The rocky relationship with this person is likely caused by that. Have pity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your colleague is likely being micromanaged. I know a department like this, nothing goes out without the managers eyes on it. The rocky relationship with this person is likely caused by that. Have pity.

+1

Micromanaged

I steal code so I have to review it first to make sure it works. Usually when I find an error in someone’s code I send them a dm so they can fix it for me. But now after a few times of some people refusing to fix things and getting burned because of it, I copy managers if I know their bad code will give me bad data and that’s just to be sure it gets fixed

[Anonymous]

Could be micromanaged or performance related or it could be colleague feels that there is some history of misinterpretation or misrepresentation and is is keeping manager in the loop. Or maybe colleague feels the discussion is more professional when the manager is cc'd.

I just had a situation this week where a colleague told a manager that she had sent me an email with a clear date of delivery for a project and I hadn't responded nor completed the task on time. In fact I had first emailed her about the date, she responded, I responded back, she responded back, I responded back again....all within 45 minutes.

Yet the manager was told I had ignored her email.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I often use cc’s on emails as a management tool. It’s easy and effective in my line of work. So, it wouldn’t help if you asked one of my direct reports with whom I use this tool to stop. And if you addressed it with me I’d think you were out of line.

Set up slack channels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I often use cc’s on emails as a management tool. It’s easy and effective in my line of work. So, it wouldn’t help if you asked one of my direct reports with whom I use this tool to stop. And if you addressed it with me I’d think you were out of line.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I often use cc’s on emails as a management tool. It’s easy and effective in my line of work. So, it wouldn’t help if you asked one of my direct reports with whom I use this tool to stop. And if you addressed it with me I’d think you were out of line.

Do you have your own work to do?

[Anonymous]

My work communications are "public's within the company because everyone needs access to the information, and everyone wants help from whoever might have a useful contribution.
It helps to think about it as a message to the company, not a message to an individual. If you want a private message to an individual, don't write it down where someone can makes copy.

Exceptions are private chats for in depth discussion before publishing summary/minutes, and sometimes "public" means only my team or division.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I often use cc’s on emails as a management tool. It’s easy and effective in my line of work. So, it wouldn’t help if you asked one of my direct reports with whom I use this tool to stop. And if you addressed it with me I’d think you were out of line.

Yeah there's definitely a "tool" here.