What does Cc: stand for? Back in the stone age, when typewriters were all the rage, carbon paper was used to make an identical copy of the typed letter.
You would put two pieces of paper with a sheet of carbon paper in-between to type your communication on. The Cc: noted at the bottom of the letter let the person the letter was going to know who would get that “carbon copy.”
Speaking from experience, it was a real pain when you made a typo! Email Cc: is referred to as “Courtesy Copy” because there is no real hard copy to send.
I’ve been Cc’d – what should I do?
Unless the Sender specifically asks for your input, a response is not necessarily required. By being Cc’d, you are FYI’d while being allowed to comment. But… here is where discretion is essential!
You need not respond if there is nothing to say. One example would be if you were sent meeting minutes. Unless something is wrong or omitted – no response is necessary or expected.
Say you were Cc’d on an email with many other folks noting that a meeting time had been pushed out or changed. In that case, I would reply with a “Thank you for the update – I’ve changed my calendar accordingly and look forward to…”. In addition, I would want to know that folks got the reschedule note and are good to go if I sent that email.
No need to reply if there is no need to reply.
Unfortunately, I’ve seen onliners who need to reply when they are not adding anything valuable to the conversation. In other words, no need to respond just to type “okay.”
Or they hit “Reply to All” and make comments that are not pertinent or of interest to the others who were also Cc’d. Remember, when you see a list of folks being Cc’d, feel free to prune that list if your comments only apply to the original Sender.
Discretion means “the ability or power to decide responsibly.” That applies to everything email because you’ll always need to decide what actions to take – or not take responsibly.Continue reading