In the summer of 2006, someone at McKinsey sent an email asking for a laptop to be sent to Sweden.
But instead of copying the recipient, by mistake, the sender copied all the consultants in US and Canada — thousands of them.
Naturally, one guy did a reply-all, saying, “Please remove me from this list.”
It annoyed another guy enough that he also emailed the same thing. The more these emails came, the more frantically people replied pleading the same thing, like a nuclear chain reaction!
Soon, we were receiving dozens of emails every minute, all saying, “Please remove me from the list.” So instead of solving ‘problems of CEOs’, we were all spamming each other asking not to be spammed. The delicious irony. 😝
One guy even threatened to ‘swim to Sweden’ if the laptop was not sent. Finally, since everything has to come to an end, sadly, this email chain also stopped.
I remembered this because I recently received an email from a jobseeker, who copied a few hundred people in Cc, not Bcc! And lo and behold, one guy did a reply-all asking not to be copied on the emails. 🤦♂️
A few more guys followed, and I was sorely tempted to reply-all, but I kept telling myself, “Don’t!! Remember 2006.”
Somehow, I held back.
Sometimes, we face problems where any action will only aggravate things further. Like scratching an itch — the more you scratch, the worse it gets, and the more you want to scratch.
When nothing can be done, wisdom lies in not doing anything. Just let go, no matter how uncomfortable it feels.
PS: If you can’t stop yourself, remember that email from 2006.
– Rajan