State Department Scolds Diplomats for Poor E-Mail Etiquette

Posted on Jan 11, 2009

Flickr / me and the sysop

A recent spate of mass e-mails nearly crippled the State Department’s communications and generated a terse cable—sent out to all employees, of course—threatening disciplinary action if diplomats and others don’t cut it out. The note blamed abuse of the “reply all” button for the “e-mail storm.”

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AP via Google:

The cable orders employees to “take immediate action” to ensure they and their colleagues are “aware of the negative impact of hitting ‘reply all’ ” and to delete e-mails addressed to large numbers of people that they might receive in error.

“Anyone who disregards these instructions will be subject to disciplinary actions,” [Under Secretary of State for Management Patrick] Kennedy wrote in the cable, which begins: “Please ensure widest distribution of this message.”

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