Against the CC-Shotgun (and Other Email Etiquette Tips for Sterile Processing Professionals)

"Oops!"

I knew I had really stepped in it this time. Early one Monday morning I received a call from an OR manager wanting to "talk" to me about a recent email I had sent. Only thing was, I knew I hadn't sent her any recent emails. But as I waited for the elevator to take me up to her office, it dawned on me what I was about to walk into.

You see, I had sent an email to her boss and a couple of other folks about an issue I needed follow-up on, and I intentionally left her off the chain. I mean, I wasn't trying to hide anything, I just knew she wasn't going to respond to it, so I figured I'd save some time and go directly to the top. I didn't know it at the time, but I had made one of the many simple, yet often unknown mistakes of corporate email etiquette, and I was about to have to face the music and clean up my mess.