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Corporate Email Insanity

Step 0, the setup - Company has a very large mailing list for some reason or another, that includes many people who do not even realize they are on the list.

Step 1, the instigation - Somebody accidentally sends an irrelevant message to the mailing list. This message lands in hundred or thousands of mailboxes.

Step 2, Phase 1 - People who understand neither why they received the message nor how email works reply-all to the first message asking to be removed from whatever list sent the message. If the company has an international presence, this phase repeats as each new timezone gets to work in the morning.

Step 2, Phase 2 - People who do not understand how email works reply-all to the first wave asking that they too be removed from the list.

Step 2, Phase 3 - People who understand how email works but who don't understand that people are meatheads reply-all to the second wave imploring people to stop replying-all.

Step 2, Phase 4 - People who find the entire situation absurd start reply-all to any of the waves with cutesy messages because they just can't help acting like meatheads.

Step 3 - I complain to everybody I know. Welcome.

2010.09.03 at 10:00am EDT

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