How would you react if a third person were added to an email thread, allowing them to read the whole prior thread?

If it wasn’t a business thing, and without assent from me, I would be seriously irked.

It totally depends on the context

If it was a personal email, and sharing something private, I would be upset.

Sharing in such instances has to be appropriate (like adding a sibling on a nice family note, or adding someone who has more expecience in a n issue.) Otherwise it is the same betrayal of trust as passing along a private conversation.

Hi everyone – it was me who had the question. I’ve not been able to post questions for about a week.

It was a work email, and although there was nothing on the email thread that was embarrassing, I just kind of felt like our conversation, which was chatty in nature, was exposed to the new addition, who was recently cc’d.

I’m feeling annoyed and I know that feelings are not always logical, but was just wondering if my feelings are valid.

^^ Sound valid to me. Is it worth bringing them up with the person who CC’d?

If I was not asked beforehand, I wouldn’t like it and would probably never have another conversation of a personal nature with them.
If you do have to email with them, keep things boring or ask questions about their hemorrhoid problem. XD

@janbb: I don’t understand your question. “Is it worth bringing them up with the person who cc’d?”

I regard it as a breach of etiquette at best. At worst—well, I ended a friendship over it. If I had wanted X to see everything I had to say about subject Y, I’d have included him in the first place. I protested to the individual concerned, and he flatly refused to acknowledge my point. So no more correspondence from me, ever.

I well understand that there’s no assurance of privacy when it comes to e-mail, or indeed any other kind of correspondence or communication; but I still think courtesy demands asking the other party or parties if it’s ok to add someone or forward to someone, unless it’s a clear-cut case of need to know in a business or official context.

Even then, it often seems best to truncate the message to the relevant parts instead of including an entire thread that may have other content. How hard is it to ask oneself, “Would X really be fine with my sharing Y with Z?” If there’s any doubt, don’t.

Published is published; you can’t take anything back.

Of course, there’s always BCC, which might occur on any message you receive, and you wouldn’t know it. If there isn’t a little trust between correspondents, though, it becomes something other than good-faith communication.

@jca2 I meant to talk to the person who added the third person to your email and tell them you were disturbed by their doing that without asking you. The “them” I referred to were your feelings from your post above mine.

@jca2 It’s happened to me a time or two, at work, and I think it’s very rude.

It think it’s rude too.

@janbb: Ok I understand better now.

I am debating whether to say something or just let it go.

@jca2, how about this? Send a message to the added-on recipient, with a copy to the offender who looped him or her in (maybe an open reply to the whole thread). Say you’re sorry about all the chitchat, but you had thought it was just between you and so-and-so; and is there anything they’d like you to add by way of clarification of the pertinent parts?

Ok, passive-aggressive, I know; but tempting, isn’t it?

I was Subject Matter Expert (SME) for a particular area of information at work. Someone outside the group sent a statement (incorrect information) to an associate asking to confirm the assumption. I got CC’d in the response by my associate saying the first person the made a bad assumption, in my area . First person went off on both of us, he/she left the company shortly after.

@Jeruba What happened to me is one person was chatting me up during work hours via email, I was too busy, so I told her that. She IM’d me a few days later and said she was taking one of my duties since I had mentioned I was so busy, after forwarding the convo to MY supervisor.

Ya’ll know me pretty well by now, how do you think that conversation went?

I told her that if I actually needed help, I would ask my supervisor and I didn’t appreciate it. She apologized and said she thought she was helping. Haven’t spoken to her again yet.

Frankly, I think some people ONLY understand a complete silence.

I’m with @Caravanfan It’s a matter of judgement. There are some people you can trust with the most intimate information but the gradient between individuals is as varied as their numbers. Then there will be lapses in the judgement of the most discreet among us while the notorious busybody has a moment of profound forbearance. It’s not always easy to discern who’s who, but it’s important to remember what you pick up.

@stanleybmanly,

> it’s important to remember what you pick up.

I’m totally with you there. It’s my belief that nothing you learn is ever wasted. Sooner or later, it’ll be useful. That’s especially true in the workplace.

It would depend on the context, but if it was chatty aside from pertinent work topic, I’d probably be annoyed.

If I wanted to add a new person I would either ask the other person if it’s ok to add, or pull out only relevant information.

When I add someone I write on that email that I have now cc’d another person so everyone on the thread now knows who is included. People don’t always do that. I don’t necessarily look at who an email is going to once a thread is ongoing. I find it disconcerting to realize new people were added after the email has gone back and forth a few times more.

Haha!
This is comparible to barging in on all the pm’s here.
What a fuckin car crash that would be.
Gossip central :D