Dear parents of school-age children,
It’s not necessary to “reply all” to every single email sent from your child’s teacher… especially if your kid is in the same class as ours.
Sincerely,
Parents for the Prevention of Reply All Abuse
Look, I’m all for open communication, especially when it involves parents and educators, and despite my glaring absence on Facebook, I really do appreciate the advantages associated with digital messaging. However, when it comes to emails and the “reply all” function, I’m a real hater.
I’m not a huge fan of checking emails to begin with, so when I see 50 bazillion new messages with the same subject line choking my inbox, I get a little testy.
And not testy like spelling testy.
Or spelling test.
Yes. Spelling test.
Like the one my child’s teacher emailed about because she had to move the date the kids are taking it from Friday to Thursday due to this week’s field trip.
Yes. That email.
The one that more than a dozen parents decided to type the word “thanks” to before hitting the “reply all” option.
If you are an inadvertent offender or you simply have a hot little finger that frequently clicks the “reply all” icon before your brain has time to intervene, please, PLEASE, for the love of all that is right with electronic communication, stop and think for a moment.
Take a teeny-tiny moment and ask yourself,”Does everyone need to read this?”
Does a teacher’s single sentence email really warrant sending a “Thanks!,” “okay,” “Great!,” “Super!” or “Got it” reply?
The answer is pretty much always no.
You’re grateful for the head’s up about the test, appreciative the teacher took time to notify you, dutifully marked it on your calendar.
We get it.
You don’t have to create a whole separate email that lands in everyone’s inbox featuring just one word, or maybe two or three; that we have to then spend time deleting. Time we could be using to promote world peace… or lecturing about the benefits of the Bcc function.
Newsflash: It’s not called blind cc for nothing.
In fact, I pretty sure it was created to help preserve the sight and sanity of busy parents who wish to be protected from “Reply All” abusers.
Are you one of them?