Letters to the Editor
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Resistance is Futile
Let me tell you, I once, after having endured a slew of emails on hypodermics in telephone coin return slots, ether-laced handkerchiefs offered at highway rest stops, awakening in an ice-filled bathtub to find ones kidneys purloined--took a moment to "reply to all" with the relevant links to Snopes and introduce to my coworkers the term Urban Legends.
The next day I ran into the fellow who had posted these. Why do you want to go and ruin all my fun? he asked.
It came to me then that he did not know or care whether these stories were true. He simply enjoyed having a juicy yarn to unspool and being the first to unspool it.
I've since learned the best reply is "Thanks for this vital information. I'll be sure to tell everyone I know." THEN hit the delete key.
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Use snopes.
Wait until the email's about something that would impact corporate behavior at the office. Then look up the debunking on snopes and email the office. Everyone. "I just wanted everyone to be aware that this is a hoax! Didn't want people to panic." Be friendly. Be polite. Point out what a great resource Snopes is. Pretend you just heard about it if you don't want to be too much of a smartass.
Depending on your boss, one email might be enough to cut it out altogether.
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Boss may not be a man
Dearest Cary,
It is not my impression from the way that the letter is written that his/her/hir boss is male. You may have additional information that I do not. If that is not the case, let me just point out that, yes, you have gendered assumptions. Why can't the boss be female?
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seriously?
THIS is your problem? If your biggest problem with your boss is fluffy kitten e-mails, you're luckier than pretty much every working person I know. Your boss is clearly not the sharpest tool in the shed. But if the greatest manifestation of his or her stupidity is silly e-mails and not, say, 10 times more work for you, I think you can manage it. Seriously. The delete key was made for a reason.
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Kittens?
I too hate the silly bogus "forward to 10 more people or your face will blow up" e-mails.
But don't mess with the fluffy kittens.
I subscribe to the internet because of the cute kitties. I need those kitties. Lolcats, cute videos, all of it.
Don't dis the felines. And please, don't take my kitties away.
:(
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I want to agree with Cary, hardcore, but
But I think this is probably just a matter of taste. Some people think it's appropriate to send "moving" stories that end with a threat, and some people got over chain letters after reading Christopher Pike in 6th grade. Not my taste, but okay, if you want to embarrass yourself...If your boss isn't an idiot otherwise, you are probably okay.
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People still get away with this behavior at work?
In the last two corporate jobs I had, forwarding chain emails was grounds for dismissal. (As evil as working for The Man can be, once in awhile The Man gets it right.) Now I work part-time for myself and part-time for a university and nobody forwards this stuff to me any more. Must be the severed-head collection I keep outside my office door.
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Life is WONDERFUL
If this is the only problem you have that merits writing to an advice column, your life is wonderful.
Get down on your knees and thank your preferred power-greater-than-you for your blessed life.
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Auuugh! I'd rather stab myself in the head!
Seriously. I'd get more joy -- and less pain -- if instead of someone forwarding me one of those emails they just dropped me a note to let me know I should slam my head down really hard on my desk then get on with my day. Who sends this stuff? Worse, who forwards it?
It's bad enough putting up with this stuff from clueless (but well meaning) relatives (who always stop after I direct them to Snopes), but from a boss? No. Just no. My boss has no business sending me any email that has nothing to do with work. Period.
And besides, these forwards are the source of something like 90% of the viruses that go around office networks and infect/zombify everything. Forwarding this stuff is not only unprofessional, it's irresponsible in an office environment.
At the very least, I'd return an email to the boss asking them to exclude me from such email as I found it distracting and unwelcome in my inbox. At the worst, I'd point out that forwarding such emails likely violates company policy (as most companies have policies regarding how company email may be used) and endangers the security of every computer used to open it.
Then I'd slam my head down on the desk for good measure. Just to get rid of the memories of soppy prayers and images of fuzzy kittens.
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Bosses Usually Are Fluffy Stuffed Jackasses...
But with lethal steel blades under their cute fur.
You need to learn this. Bosses would be hilarious if they were not so dangerous. Even in dinky little companies, they start believing in themselves, and they have silly, fluffy, disastrous ideas...
And it takes several years for their dopey ideas to catch up with them. In several years (= between a couple years and six years), your company will go bankrupt due to this twit, and you will be unemployed, but he or she may move on to some well-paid position, and blame you for the problems.
Run like hell! Better to flip burgers or practice your bass guitar than to depend on this ding-dong.
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Really; the writing is on the wall
Frankly, I would consider what kind of career I could achieve working for a child or a company that condones someone at the manager level behaving like a child. But obviously I passionately hate those emails and have no professional respect for those who waste everyone else's time sending them.
A option I would seriously consider is to set up an email rule that sends email from the manager with certain conditions (say with "FW: FW: *" in the subject) to the trash. When you're grilled for missing an email from that manager explain you have set up a rule because you have no interest, or time to waste, on ridiculous chain mail.