Business Ettiquette Question

I work as a production planner for a international food company. I'm working at home today because my mother is ill and I didn't want to leave her alone. My company is great that they allow me this kind of flexibility but working from home can be a pain when you are trying to plan production. Anyway, we are having some issues with a customer's production and I sent information via the company's email to all involved parties.

My question involves our Customer Service Manager. She took the internal email I wrote and copied and pasted it into an email that she sent directly to our customer. When an email is internal, I don't believe it should be sent word for word to the customer, especially from someone who did not write the email or did not let the originator know she was copying it to an outside source. This is not the first time the CSM has done this and it really gets me mad. I've spoken to my boss about it and he agrees that it is irritating, but says not to let it bother me. I don't think it helps that I am not crazy about this person and think she is being lazy by not composing her own email to the customer.

Am I just being a b!tch or is it really bad behavior on her part?

That would irritate me. She wouldn't be copy & pasting your e-mail she should take the time to write her own email and add in the information she needs from your e-mail into hers.

You said she's done this before so to me it sounds like she's just being lazy.

I suppose it depends on the situation and the nature of the email. If the information in your email is exactly the information the customer needs, I don't see the need to create work by rewriting everything. Additionally, if you are the authority, your words are probably more accurate than anyone's paraphrase. It would have been better for her to write something to preface it, like, "Just received the following information from our production planner..." and indicate she was quoting you directly.

You have a point Misty and I agree that the preface would have been better, as would letting me know she is doing it. It probably irritates me much more than it should because I don't care for her. I had mentioned it to some co-workers in the past and they quickly agreed with me, but they don't care for her either so that clouds everything. I will work on letting it go and trying to see her in a better light. Thanks Ladies.

Yes I agree with Misty as well. Also, if I were that CSM I would also edit any possible "flammable" language your original email could have (not to say cursing or anything, but language that could be misconstrued, etc) and just state the facts (as Misty outlined in her post). This is also so it doesn't reflect badly on you, on the company, and on HER.

For me, that experience would be beyond irritating.

Yeah, it never feels good when that happens, but it is a common business practice. I totally understand your irritation. {hugs}

Thanks Ladies. She did it again today and I have just accepted that she will continue to do it. I did however tell her that I still didn't appreciate it to which she replied, "But you're so totally awesome and know everything." and then want to give me a hug. Seriously, this is business not high school, so while I am trying to see the good in her, I can't really say it is working.

Lori, try not to be bothered by this. It really is very typical in the business word. I would take it as a compliment that she likes what you're doing!

I'll keep trying, but office hugs are out of the question for me. I am not a huggy kinda girl.

I totally understand where you're coming from. I have a colleague (who hopefully isn't reading this public post) that takes credit for some of my ideas when presenting to VPs ... so I absolutely get that it's not a good feeling at all. I've been "not so subtle" that my toes feel stepped on, more than once. Subtly is not my strong suit, lol.

Mine either. I tend to speak my mind and I like people who are honest in return. I don't like people who take credit for work that isn't theirs or won't admit to a mistake. This woman tries, and succeeds in a lot of cases, to get by on the cute factor, but she has a ugly side to her that I have seen her use with her employees a few times and do not care for. She just isn't my cuppa tea, but I need to accept that this practice of copying my emails to the customer is going to happen whether I like it or not. But I sure don't have to hug her.

As has been said before, I think it depends on the nature of the e-mail. I don't mind some e-mails going out to a customer (and a few times I welcome it), but if there's something criticizing the way someone in our company handled something or anything that might reflect badly on our company I definitely would not be happy. A suggestion: if your company has a policy handbook with a statement about e-mails being for private company use only copy and paste that as part of your standard signature. And then the next time she forwards an e-mail like that, bring her attention to your email signoture line and ask that she kindly respect that.

That is a great idea Leslie. Thank you. We are a new company here in the states and I think we still have some internal issues and policies that need to be addressed. We've been working hard on growing the business and now we are looking at updating and managing our internal systems to better support our current and future growth. This is a good suggestion for our new handbook.