my boss told me to stop cc’ing him on all my emails … so when DO I cc him?

A reader writes:

I’m not quite a year out from graduating college. I left my first “professional” job after only eight months (due to a workload that required us working seven days a week, a manager who texted our personal cellphones at all hours and days demanding answers about work tasks, etc.) and just started my second job in a much lower-paying field about two months ago.

At my first job, my manager wanted to be cc’d on everything … and I mean everything. He’d complain if he was not cc’d on the most mundane of emails, and even requested that our broader 12-person team would be included as well. This was even for things that were extremely specific to me, such as requests regarding missing access permissions. To be completely fair, this was a very teamwork-dependent type of work, so I accepted it. In my new job, we work mostly independently, although we do have our direct manager as well as a peer one level above us who’s supposed to act as something of a “quality checker” for the work we complete.

So far, I’ve been cc’ing my manager as well as my quality checker on every email I send out. I’ve just gotten a complaint from my manager that I’m looping him into things that he doesn’t need to be looped into. My question is, how can I tell? I feel like my sense of norms is warped from my first job where I was working under (what I recognize now as as) a micromanager. How can you tell when you should loop your team or manager into something, versus when you can handle it yourself?

Your first manager wanted you to cc an entire 12-person team when you were missing access permissions? Even among micromanagers, that’s extreme.

So yeah, ignore everything you learned from that manager about cc’ing norms, because he was wildly out of sync with how it normally works, and with what most managers would want.

In most jobs, you definitely do not need to cc your manager on every email you send. Some jobs are exceptions to that, but if you’re in one you’ll be told. Otherwise, not only do you not need to cc your manager on everything, but you actively shouldn’t — because you’ll create way too much incoming email for your boss and they don’t need all that cluttering up their inbox and buying the messages they do need to see. It’s also likely to come off a little strangely to them — as well as to the main person you’re emailing, because sometimes cc’ing your boss when there’s no obvious need can come across as “I don’t trust you to handle this well unless my boss is watching.”

While individual jobs may have their own norms, generally you only need to cc your manager if:
– it truly pertains to their work
– you want it to be clear that something is coming “from” you and your manager, but you’re the one writing the message (and even then, you don’t always need to cc them)
– you want them looped into this specific conversation (as opposed to all conversations) so they know immediately where things stand on the topic or how something is being handled and/or so they can give input sooner rather than later if they have it (other times they might need to do that eventually but it can wait until details are worked or until you’re giving them a broader update later and they don’t need the back-and-forth now)
– you’re deliberately choosing to make it clear your manager is aware of/paying attention to the request (such as in a case where you haven’t been able to get responses or where you think the recipient is likely to push back — which is exactly why doing it the way you’ve been can send the wrong message to your colleagues)
– you’re foreseeing that something could become a problem
– it’s a Big Deal, like an angry customer or a situation where you’re concerned you’re being treated unfairly
– they’ve specifically asked you to include them

These are just general guidelines, though. The best way to find out what your manager wants to be cc’d on is to ask! Especially now that he’s told you it’s too much, you can just go to him and say, “I used to work for someone who wanted to be cc’d on literally everything. I didn’t realize until you told me that it was too much, so can you tell me what kinds of things you do want to be cc’d on?”

You should have a similar conversation with your quality checker too, because they almost certainly don’t want or need to be included on everything you’re doing! Ask them what they do want to see, and let that be your guide.

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