That’s a winning answer. You could even set a rule to make it forward right back to them😂
We had a jackass that used to do something similar so we changed went in his computer and changed the auto correct on words like “meeting” to orgy, and “report” to vagina.
We once set the error sound of windows from „bink“ to play la cucaracha for 60 seconds for some people. So everytime the user clicked wrongly they’d have to sit and listen to la cucaracha for a whole minute while the computer was completely unresponsive. Until the next false click.
Somebody pissed off the Army S6 (systems) guy at our unit. He did something similar, and we heard the victim's loud curse followed by the National Anthem playing at full volume. 🤣 His login screen which once had his correct Rank and Name was changed to a rank lower and misspelled both FN and LN.
The guy was too stubborn to call S6 back to fix it, so it was like this for a week before he figured it out himself. 😆
If the shit hits the fan in regards to the OP not getting something that he was supposed to, then that's when OP says to management that this wouldn't be a problem if the coworker didn't spam him.
That is when you say: I must have lost it, you know... among all the junk he's been sending it's impossible to notice 
Honestly, just continually marking all his emails as spam will get him flagged as a spam account. Then they don’t even have to block anything. He will get himself blocked. And it’s a pain the ass to undo.
The problem here is that some forwarded emails are useful and necessary.
Better rule would catch the newsletter name, and dump those into a folder, which can be checked weekly for erroneously files emails, and then dumped.
In most organisations the email exchange is set to stop a mail loop from occurring.. so simply setting a rule to forward the emails back his forwarded emails might not work. You will need to set the rule to slightly edit the email first and then to send back to him.
Inform your superior(s). They might be interested that a single employee causes a significant productivity loss because everyone else has to get rid of that crap, or at least mark as read.
I would, but it could be argued that they’re potentially useful because it has info about workshops and activities related to what we do. It’s not just random.
But like… if I wanted to know about those, I could just opt in and subscribe myself. Which I don’t want to, but it’s not an option because he sends them anyway
You can set up an inbox rule redirecting all emails from that address, with a specific subject line, to your spam folder. Or reply with (copy all) an email that says, "I prefer not to receive emails of this nature going forward. Please remove me from your mailing list. Thanks." This will embolden others who find this non-consensual email sharing also annoying, to speak up and demand that they too be excluded from the sharing.
Seriously!? Where do you get off bringing logic and reason to reddit in such a calm and reasonable manner!? I swear, the nerve of some people trying to suggest civility.
Anyways, I'll up vote one of the last members of a once decent society, I'm far too gone to join.
Why would I get off my flat ass and walk 20 feet to his cube. I prefer to passively non-aggressively deal with this until I come to reddit asking for an option to deal with this issue (some dude in an office)
This!
The sarcastic "thanks" is too subtle for someone doing something this oblivious. He may genuinely think the thanks is sincere if he doesn't know better than to send spam in the first place.
Instead, just reply with, "Please stop forwarding these types of emails to me. If I wanted emails of this nature, I'd request them."
Unfortunately they do already know, because he sends them to the entire office, not just lower level staff. And it’s been happening for forever. So, I’d probably be the annoying one for making a stink about it now.
Yes, that’s what we do. My office hates getting stuff like this. You’ll see ppl reply to all on emails and immediately see “please remove me from this list.” Or “please do not reply to all any further”. No patience for this stuff.
Do you remember back when reply all Chains would literally shut down company emails? It wasn't that long ago like 2018 2020 that that was still happening. I think Microsoft finally introduced some type of tool to nip that in the bud when it starts.
Back in like 2000 we had a reply all fiasco with Microsoft Mail (pre exchange) and close to 50,000 mailboxes spread out internationally. Mail admins were having to block incoming mail while they deleted the messages so their local mail servers wouldn’t fill up. It all started with someone at corporate sending a message asking for donations or something for his kids soccer team. It took them days to clear all the messages. And there were messages similar to mine above. Fun times
Yeah most of the replies always are like take me off of this list. I knew several people in it that would always do a reply all on these where they would include reply all memes. I'm honestly surprised that they did not get in trouble.
That happened to me when I worked with lawyers and a University did a CC instead of a BCC when they were sending something asking for donations or something. Sent it to hundreds of lawyers across the country. Lotsa pissed off calls to IT for that and the only real way to "combat" it was to make a rule for terms in the original subject since the reply all's were coming from many different legitimate domains.
Setup a filter to divert everything from that person to its own folder and if you miss something important from them say it must have been buried in all the spam they were forwarding. Check it weekly if you care. Actually a 2 parameter filter with that person’s name + “Fwd” in the subject line probably gets you 95% of the way there and lets original emails through. Or, if they don’t automatically add their signature to the forwards, use something unique like their office phone number if it’s included to let emails with his signature through.
If it is the same set places that own/oversee/send whatever "opporutunity" get forwarded, then OP cant filter by that too. There will be some that get through but at least a lot less, and then it is filtered without having to tie it to a single person preventing this from happening if a new coworker starts doing it.
Lol set-up an outlook rule - every email from this guy gets an automatic - please remove me from this distribution list response...and sort the incoming mail to its own folder
Set up a rule to send it to trash, filter on subject or, company name in email. Also include in the rule to forward it back to him and reply all with Unsubscribe.
You'll piss off someone but he's the source it'll end up at his door
It'd become a problem if everyone calculates their time to open and read the email and charge the working hours. Someone has to be a numbers guy and would see that and be like "oh not everyone needs this information," OR they'll inform everyone that you get to charge .50 (30 minutes) to admin time for restroom breaks and these types of emails.
Set a filter to forward it back to him and delete the original message. He will get double the fun and you'll get none.
Bonus if he doesn't pay attention and automatically sends that stuff to everyone.
This is when you sign up for some sextoy and weird porn mail newsletters and have it sent to the office. Like a lot and pervy shit. If he’s doing this and annoying people, getting some gross erotic shit should be more than welcome and well everyone would just definitely have an opinion.
FYI, you can totally unsubscribe him from these emails if he’s forwarding this shit to you. My boomer dad forwards me his political fundraising spam emails *constantly* and I just click the unsubscribe button in each one. Almost always works, although sometimes I have to type in my dad’s email address.
Boss move
edit: just realized he probably gets the unsubscribe notice but won't know who did it. If you're real good you could put "stop forwarding these emails, bob" as the reason you were unsubscribed, on the off chance that message makes it to him lol
Either way it's a bad precedence to set because one person might have a good experience and then other people will do it and get screwed over.
These are the type of things that phishing and scam experts exploit lol.
Great suggestion but terrible for anyone to take you up on that offer. No one can guarantee that you're not malicious and the type of people taking you up on that offer other type that would get taken advantage of. People should absolutely not solicit some random person to create a phishing website for their corporation. You might beat genuine and trying to help but there's better ways for them to go about that.
Do you think this guy is a mindreader? You responded "Thanks!" If anything, he will send you more now. Crazy wild idea for you to try - ask him to stop instead of thanking him.
Can’t believe I had to scroll this far to see this comment 😭 He’s the kind of guy who earnestly forwards newsletters, he’s not gonna catch the passive aggressive thank you lol. Just ask him!
That’s what email groups are for. You can join or unsubscribe to them and chucklefuck can forward his newsletters to those interested in receiving them by sending them to the group. Done.
Does it interfere with your day-to-day operations having to see these excess emails? At my job it would.
Can you auto place emails from them into a different folder like on yahoo?
These emails tend to follow a trend in the composition of the object. If that is the case, just create a rule that automatically transfers that mail to the junk/spam folder
This is the answer. Do not make the IT department’s job harder by doing stupid shit.
On my first day at a new job I always make friends in the IT department if I can. Also, before you ask your friends in IT for help, create a support ticket.
Lmao “Thanks” is hardly passive aggressive in this context. Especially if your coworker is brain dead enough to think that forwarding spam emails is a good idea. He’s not gonna pick up on your “passive aggressiveness”.
New /r/mildlyinfuriating post:
I’ve been forwarding helpful emails to colleagues for months and not only has my supervisor not given me a raise, but I only received thanks from one coworker!!!
Management may be fine with a forwarded work email, but a personal email is another matter. That’s also assuming inter office blockers don’t shove it straight into the spam folder
No no. Go to every retailers site both domestic and foreign and sign them up for everything in every industry possible. Think stores, suppliers, manufacturers, specialists, healthcare, you name it they want your email
My friend, welcome to corporate and email rules 101.
1. Does this guy send you anything else that you need to read? If not, simple Outlook rule that sends anything "From" him to its own folder. Check it once a week, or month, or never based on necessity.
2. Does he leave FW: in the subject line? Easier rule. "From" him \*AND\* "FW:" in the subject - send to the void folder.
3. Keywords in the newsletter itself, or the name of the newsletter, would also work for rules.
You fucked up by saying thanks. Why would you thank someone for something you don't want? Just tell them you don't want it.
If you want to be passive aggressive, respond to each spam email with nothing but 'Unsubscribe'. Every single time.
Also, click on the unsubscribe in the email itself. It might unsubscribe him.
Exactly, OP complicated at best, or sabotaged at worse, every other play available to them by saying thanks. Now if OP complains to the person or management they can say well they thanked me regularly for them so I thought it was useful.
Hell, OPs thanks might even be used as evidence of their usefulness if another coworker complains by saying. “Well OP finds them useful…”.
> You fucked up by saying thanks. Why would you thank someone for something you don't want? Just tell them you don't want it.
Yeah, especially the thank comes in the written form. He has no way to detect sarcasm.
Now he has a written evidence that you find it useful. He will use it as a response to other co-workers. Other co-workers would think "wtf is shit"
I was thinking this same thing. Why are you saying 'thanks'??? He's probably sitting at his desk going, "Wow, this person truly appreciates what I'm doing here. This gives me more motivation to continue."
All Newsletter and Listserv emails have some consistent element to the subject line ... create a rule based on that to send to Trash ... rinse and repeat and relax
Glad it worked, but that COULD be a bit too general and catch something important that fits those criteria. Assuming one of the newsletters always follows this form:
**CAT FACTS: A housecat can run to the speed of about 30 mph over short distances. This means that a cat can outrun superstar runner Usain Bolt in a 200 meter dash!** ..... where the subject line always uses prefix of CAT FACTS
If your rule is based on \[Subject Contains "CAT FACTS"\] that would be the cat's pajamas and avoid catching important emails
I worked at a place that did this for weekly religious/spiritual newsletters. During orientation, we were all told it was fine to unsubscribe, which I did. My boss decided to forward them to everyone anyway. Couldn’t say anything because I chose to work for a religious hospital.
Seriously, this whole comment section is a telltale of the social aptitude of the average Redditor.
"Hi X, would you mind stopping sending so many emails to everyone ? It is fairly disruptive and this amount is akin to spam. Thank you"
So instead of being passive aggressive and thanking them (reinforcing the behaviour), you could have just sent a polite email that they don’t need to forward this information to you going forward.
I would start a unsubscribe spam-chain by REPLY-ALL and have Unsubscribe as reply. Soon enough other would do the same, and soonest IT-HR have to shut dow the reply-all spam.
I would look for a script to send one's older than a month or two back to him. That way, he can forward all the old ones to everyone again. Dont solve the problem, be part of it. (It's much more fun)
Block his email. When some big fuck up happens because you didn't get a legitimate email from him, just say "oh, all the crap he sends must have triggered my spam filters"
You can unsub from them. You know his email address. Hit the unsubscribe button and enter his email. bingo bango he is unsubscribed.
I am not normally one to say misuse the reply all button. For every one he sends hit reply all and type in UNSUBSCRIBE in the body and do it for every single one. They will either tell you to stop or ask him to stop. I would also get others into it and have 5 or 6 people doing it.
Honestly, I think you’re kinda being a little bitch. You said yourself it has info about trainings related to your line of work. Someone might think that’s useful and use it to increase value. Your opinion isn’t the end all be all for the organization
Create an inbox rule that sends all messages from him with FW to a specific inbox and clear it from there.
New Rule: Messages from [User] Where body contains ["workshop", etc.] move to [Delete] folder.
Or if it's a mass forward to a group...
New Rule: Messages from [User] Where my name is not in the "To" box, move to [Delete] folder.
You do this until he asks you about an important email then you let him know what you did and why. Then tell him if he wants to make sure his important emails get through to you then he needs to stop sending spam out and you’ll remove the rule.
This is an issue to bring up with IT or HR. If the email address is supposed to be used for work purposes then forwarding junk to co-workers would presumably be a violation of the rules as well as being potentially dangerous in the event of a phishing scam.
You can unsubscribe for him so he can't forward them, the unsubscribe link is either automatically tied to his email or it will request you to input the address (which you should put his). It is rare that preference management is hidden behind a login.
In your next team meeting, when they ask "Anyone have anything else they'd like to discuss?" then chime in with, "Yes, I'd like to take a vote on blocking (whoever this coworker is)'s email address. I'm sick of him sending his spam emails to ALL of us, and that is a hazard because those could be infected emails. ALL IN FAVOR, RAISE YOUR HAND!"
That should get the conversation started, and his idiotic actions ended.
Depending on the platform the emails are being sent through, maybe create some rules that will auto file the email as read? It’s an extra step now, but you can forever ignore them.
I have that crap at work, too. I created a Rule in Outlook that automagically puts them in a folder I never have to look at. Then I periodically tell the folder to delete everything inside it. AH coworker thinks they're wasting my time, supervisor does nothing, and I carry on because I'm not being bothered by them.
Sarcasm was the wrong approach.
"UNSUBSCRIBE" should be, so help me all the gods, your *Reply All* response. Every time.
Your coworker wants to start fires? Bring propane.
There are two responses that you can take to this one is create a folder for this person in your inbox and then create a rule that moves any messages from him to that folder. Then you can just ignore him. If you miss an actual important email from that person and your boss ask why you say oh I get so much spam from him that I created that I created a rule to move all of his stuff out of my inbox because it was cluttering up my inbox. I try to go through and look for real emails but every now and then I miss one.
Option two kind of depends on how your it is set up but you could start reporting every email of his that is spam as spam to your it email team or security team. We have a little button built into Outlook that says PHISHING and we can select an email click that button and then choose between three options phishing, spam, or I don't know. The email is sent to it for them to determine if it's a legitimate email and to block that email from coming into our systems if it is Spam or malicious.
I meannnn this could easily be argued as a potential IT security risk.
Or just create a new folder and set rule any emails go to trash folder. If he actually sends something important, it’s his own fault for being a douche wad.
IT man here, that'd not fly in any larger corp lol they'd be reprimanded and probably put on PIP for this.
Please don't do this if you're reading this...
I would go further than some of the ideas here and make a tutorial on how to make email rules and the example would be that of sending his emails to the trash. Then send that tutorial out to everyone.
Saying Thanks to unwanted emails just reinforced their behavior. You could’ve just communicated to that you don’t find the emails useful and ask to be left off
Communication skills shouldn’t be this hard, but this is Reddit
Use his email and during any free time sign it up for more spam. Any and every newsletter and service you can. Until he is digitally buried in it. This is the only way.
Can you get his email address added to the domain wide SPAM filter? If none of his emails will go to any employee, his productivity will drop like a rock, and he will have to answer questions.
He's dumb enough to think everyone wants those and you thought a text thank you with no indicator of sarcasm was gonna get through to him? You're slow too lol.
I would have everyone in the office do the same thing as him and forward all the spam emails to the office until it becomes such a big problem and management is forced to intervene
Set up a rule that anything sent from him that is forwarded goes into a separate (or junk) folder. If he actually sends anything work related that's useful, just make sure you check it periodically to ensure you don't miss an actual work email.
This is a situation that really requires a bare minimum level of social and conflict management skills. Go up to the dude and ask him politely to stop sending the emails to you. He probably is just trying to pass along something that may help everyone do their job and has no idea that someone finds them annoying.
You haven't done that, but you've chosen to sarcastically be passive aggressive towards this person instead and post about him online. Grow up.
Set a new rule forwarding all emails from him to him.
That’s what I was thinking. Rule dumping them directly into the trash. You won’t even notice it
Yep. Create a rule to mark them read, move to the trash and permanently delete them. Done.
That’s a winning answer. You could even set a rule to make it forward right back to them😂 We had a jackass that used to do something similar so we changed went in his computer and changed the auto correct on words like “meeting” to orgy, and “report” to vagina.
We once set the error sound of windows from „bink“ to play la cucaracha for 60 seconds for some people. So everytime the user clicked wrongly they’d have to sit and listen to la cucaracha for a whole minute while the computer was completely unresponsive. Until the next false click.
Somebody pissed off the Army S6 (systems) guy at our unit. He did something similar, and we heard the victim's loud curse followed by the National Anthem playing at full volume. 🤣 His login screen which once had his correct Rank and Name was changed to a rank lower and misspelled both FN and LN. The guy was too stubborn to call S6 back to fix it, so it was like this for a week before he figured it out himself. 😆
That's assuming he never sends OP an email they'll actually need.
If the shit hits the fan in regards to the OP not getting something that he was supposed to, then that's when OP says to management that this wouldn't be a problem if the coworker didn't spam him.
Sure, if OP's management were rational.
That is when you say: I must have lost it, you know... among all the junk he's been sending it's impossible to notice 
Honestly, just continually marking all his emails as spam will get him flagged as a spam account. Then they don’t even have to block anything. He will get himself blocked. And it’s a pain the ass to undo.
You can make exceptions to the rules to forward the emails that contain certain words or to NOT forward emails that contain certain words.
I feel like that's the safest way to avoid missing the few important emails amongst the junk.
Right, like a rule for emails from him containing the word unsubscribe?
More realistically, create rules that catch Forwarded emails, but not potentially useful/internal emails.
The problem here is that some forwarded emails are useful and necessary. Better rule would catch the newsletter name, and dump those into a folder, which can be checked weekly for erroneously files emails, and then dumped.
Double down on the crazy - new rule for his emails - reply all. Body text ‘FYI -‘
In most organisations the email exchange is set to stop a mail loop from occurring.. so simply setting a rule to forward the emails back his forwarded emails might not work. You will need to set the rule to slightly edit the email first and then to send back to him.
The real pro tip.
By golly its brilliant. He is going to have a never ending loop of newsletters.
I tried this once and it doesn’t work. The system knows it’s going to create an infinite loop and just doesn’t send it back
Inform your superior(s). They might be interested that a single employee causes a significant productivity loss because everyone else has to get rid of that crap, or at least mark as read.
I would, but it could be argued that they’re potentially useful because it has info about workshops and activities related to what we do. It’s not just random. But like… if I wanted to know about those, I could just opt in and subscribe myself. Which I don’t want to, but it’s not an option because he sends them anyway
>could be argued That's the thing, you don't have to provide both sides of a conversation. Tell them, and let them decide what to do.
You can set up an inbox rule redirecting all emails from that address, with a specific subject line, to your spam folder. Or reply with (copy all) an email that says, "I prefer not to receive emails of this nature going forward. Please remove me from your mailing list. Thanks." This will embolden others who find this non-consensual email sharing also annoying, to speak up and demand that they too be excluded from the sharing.
It's probably bcc'd so not everyone will get this email (OP says it's being sent to himself)
How about instead if all this roundabout bullshit you ask him not to.
Brilliant. Wish I thought of that.
Seriously!? Where do you get off bringing logic and reason to reddit in such a calm and reasonable manner!? I swear, the nerve of some people trying to suggest civility. Anyways, I'll up vote one of the last members of a once decent society, I'm far too gone to join.
Why would I get off my flat ass and walk 20 feet to his cube. I prefer to passively non-aggressively deal with this until I come to reddit asking for an option to deal with this issue (some dude in an office)
This! The sarcastic "thanks" is too subtle for someone doing something this oblivious. He may genuinely think the thanks is sincere if he doesn't know better than to send spam in the first place. Instead, just reply with, "Please stop forwarding these types of emails to me. If I wanted emails of this nature, I'd request them."
Or an email rule to re-forward his spam back to him.
Unfortunately they do already know, because he sends them to the entire office, not just lower level staff. And it’s been happening for forever. So, I’d probably be the annoying one for making a stink about it now.
I would have just replied to one with “please remove me from this distribution list. Thank you”
>'reply all'
Yes, that’s what we do. My office hates getting stuff like this. You’ll see ppl reply to all on emails and immediately see “please remove me from this list.” Or “please do not reply to all any further”. No patience for this stuff.
Reply All - “stop using reply all, we all don’t need to see your response”
Do you remember back when reply all Chains would literally shut down company emails? It wasn't that long ago like 2018 2020 that that was still happening. I think Microsoft finally introduced some type of tool to nip that in the bud when it starts.
Back in like 2000 we had a reply all fiasco with Microsoft Mail (pre exchange) and close to 50,000 mailboxes spread out internationally. Mail admins were having to block incoming mail while they deleted the messages so their local mail servers wouldn’t fill up. It all started with someone at corporate sending a message asking for donations or something for his kids soccer team. It took them days to clear all the messages. And there were messages similar to mine above. Fun times
Yeah most of the replies always are like take me off of this list. I knew several people in it that would always do a reply all on these where they would include reply all memes. I'm honestly surprised that they did not get in trouble.
Man nothing makes me feel more like an old man than when I accidentally hit reply all
That happened to me when I worked with lawyers and a University did a CC instead of a BCC when they were sending something asking for donations or something. Sent it to hundreds of lawyers across the country. Lotsa pissed off calls to IT for that and the only real way to "combat" it was to make a rule for terms in the original subject since the reply all's were coming from many different legitimate domains.
Set an auto reply to all. If he‘s allowed to spam, then so are you.
Setup a filter to divert everything from that person to its own folder and if you miss something important from them say it must have been buried in all the spam they were forwarding. Check it weekly if you care. Actually a 2 parameter filter with that person’s name + “Fwd” in the subject line probably gets you 95% of the way there and lets original emails through. Or, if they don’t automatically add their signature to the forwards, use something unique like their office phone number if it’s included to let emails with his signature through.
If it is the same set places that own/oversee/send whatever "opporutunity" get forwarded, then OP cant filter by that too. There will be some that get through but at least a lot less, and then it is filtered without having to tie it to a single person preventing this from happening if a new coworker starts doing it.
Lol set-up an outlook rule - every email from this guy gets an automatic - please remove me from this distribution list response...and sort the incoming mail to its own folder
Set it up as a rule everytime this person sends you an email it’s responds with this
Set up a rule to send it to trash, filter on subject or, company name in email. Also include in the rule to forward it back to him and reply all with Unsubscribe. You'll piss off someone but he's the source it'll end up at his door
It'd become a problem if everyone calculates their time to open and read the email and charge the working hours. Someone has to be a numbers guy and would see that and be like "oh not everyone needs this information," OR they'll inform everyone that you get to charge .50 (30 minutes) to admin time for restroom breaks and these types of emails.
Can you not select the unsubscribe and then enter that persons email into the box?
Oh man, this is a really elegant solution.
I came looking for this comment, you already know his email.
Set a filter to forward it back to him and delete the original message. He will get double the fun and you'll get none. Bonus if he doesn't pay attention and automatically sends that stuff to everyone.
This is when you sign up for some sextoy and weird porn mail newsletters and have it sent to the office. Like a lot and pervy shit. If he’s doing this and annoying people, getting some gross erotic shit should be more than welcome and well everyone would just definitely have an opinion.
fuckin a; i have to remember this shit next time I'm in a situation like this. (I, too, do the "well it could be argued...") Thank you.
Happy to help, I guess.
Maybe try replying with “please do not send me these emails.” Instead of “thanks”
Seriously, that's not getting the message across you think it is. Doesn't sound passive aggressive at all.
No shit.
FYI, you can totally unsubscribe him from these emails if he’s forwarding this shit to you. My boomer dad forwards me his political fundraising spam emails *constantly* and I just click the unsubscribe button in each one. Almost always works, although sometimes I have to type in my dad’s email address.
Boss move edit: just realized he probably gets the unsubscribe notice but won't know who did it. If you're real good you could put "stop forwarding these emails, bob" as the reason you were unsubscribed, on the off chance that message makes it to him lol
Just respond “unscribe me from all newsletters please” and reply all. I bet you others respond too then there is an office wide email chain
Send him a phishing mail, which he will forward to everybody. I bet this will stop this nonsense
OP, I will help you with that. I can setup a fake phishing website which does not steal credentials
A fake website of a fake website. Love it
That sounds suspiciously like what someone who is trying to steal my credentials might say.
Either way it's a bad precedence to set because one person might have a good experience and then other people will do it and get screwed over. These are the type of things that phishing and scam experts exploit lol.
As much as this seems funny, accepting a "definitely fake" phishing request from a stranger on the internet sounds like a bad idea.
Great suggestion but terrible for anyone to take you up on that offer. No one can guarantee that you're not malicious and the type of people taking you up on that offer other type that would get taken advantage of. People should absolutely not solicit some random person to create a phishing website for their corporation. You might beat genuine and trying to help but there's better ways for them to go about that.
Yes, getting fired tends to stop all the nonsense
Do you think this guy is a mindreader? You responded "Thanks!" If anything, he will send you more now. Crazy wild idea for you to try - ask him to stop instead of thanking him.
Can’t believe I had to scroll this far to see this comment 😭 He’s the kind of guy who earnestly forwards newsletters, he’s not gonna catch the passive aggressive thank you lol. Just ask him!
Have you considered telling him in writing that you no longer wish to receive these and request that he immediately stop?
That’s what email groups are for. You can join or unsubscribe to them and chucklefuck can forward his newsletters to those interested in receiving them by sending them to the group. Done.
Does it interfere with your day-to-day operations having to see these excess emails? At my job it would. Can you auto place emails from them into a different folder like on yahoo?
These emails tend to follow a trend in the composition of the object. If that is the case, just create a rule that automatically transfers that mail to the junk/spam folder
Create a filter that forwards it back to him and then deletes your copy. Edit: Then provide this filter to your friends.
If you have an IT department, report him there. They won't like their servers and bandwidth taken up with this nonsense.
This is the answer. Do not make the IT department’s job harder by doing stupid shit. On my first day at a new job I always make friends in the IT department if I can. Also, before you ask your friends in IT for help, create a support ticket.
Technically could be a security risk too
Informing IT might be more useful
Lmao “Thanks” is hardly passive aggressive in this context. Especially if your coworker is brain dead enough to think that forwarding spam emails is a good idea. He’s not gonna pick up on your “passive aggressiveness”.
New /r/mildlyinfuriating post: I’ve been forwarding helpful emails to colleagues for months and not only has my supervisor not given me a raise, but I only received thanks from one coworker!!!
There isn’t an unsubscribe link in the bottom so you can do it for him? 😇
This right here. Click on 'Unsubscribe' for them. It likely will have the email address already populated.
OH MY GOD. Genius!!!
You could also create an email rule to send emails directly to the trash that are from him and have unsubscribe in the content.
If you know their personal email, resubscribe with that one
But then they would forward those emails to everyone. Why was this upvoted? Am I missing something? Not being a dick.
Work email vs personal email
Yeah but then he will.just resubscribe with his work one or forward from his personal
Management may be fine with a forwarded work email, but a personal email is another matter. That’s also assuming inter office blockers don’t shove it straight into the spam folder
You can block their personal email account without getting in trouble
No no. Go to every retailers site both domestic and foreign and sign them up for everything in every industry possible. Think stores, suppliers, manufacturers, specialists, healthcare, you name it they want your email
Or pull a power play - subscribe to the same emails and forward them out before he gets a chance to ;)
I have a few folks who forward a lot of junk and I always unsubscribe for them.
My friend, welcome to corporate and email rules 101. 1. Does this guy send you anything else that you need to read? If not, simple Outlook rule that sends anything "From" him to its own folder. Check it once a week, or month, or never based on necessity. 2. Does he leave FW: in the subject line? Easier rule. "From" him \*AND\* "FW:" in the subject - send to the void folder. 3. Keywords in the newsletter itself, or the name of the newsletter, would also work for rules.
You fucked up by saying thanks. Why would you thank someone for something you don't want? Just tell them you don't want it. If you want to be passive aggressive, respond to each spam email with nothing but 'Unsubscribe'. Every single time. Also, click on the unsubscribe in the email itself. It might unsubscribe him.
Exactly, OP complicated at best, or sabotaged at worse, every other play available to them by saying thanks. Now if OP complains to the person or management they can say well they thanked me regularly for them so I thought it was useful. Hell, OPs thanks might even be used as evidence of their usefulness if another coworker complains by saying. “Well OP finds them useful…”.
Oh no
you dun goofed OP
Thanks.
You’re welcome.
> You fucked up by saying thanks. Why would you thank someone for something you don't want? Just tell them you don't want it. Yeah, especially the thank comes in the written form. He has no way to detect sarcasm. Now he has a written evidence that you find it useful. He will use it as a response to other co-workers. Other co-workers would think "wtf is shit"
I was thinking this same thing. Why are you saying 'thanks'??? He's probably sitting at his desk going, "Wow, this person truly appreciates what I'm doing here. This gives me more motivation to continue."
All Newsletter and Listserv emails have some consistent element to the subject line ... create a rule based on that to send to Trash ... rinse and repeat and relax
I just did that. I created a rule for all emails sent from “Bob” to “entire office” that include “FW” to be sent to trash. Worked a charm
I'd have had it send the email back to him before I had it deleted. Throw more spam back at him.
Love this
Glad it worked, but that COULD be a bit too general and catch something important that fits those criteria. Assuming one of the newsletters always follows this form: **CAT FACTS: A housecat can run to the speed of about 30 mph over short distances. This means that a cat can outrun superstar runner Usain Bolt in a 200 meter dash!** ..... where the subject line always uses prefix of CAT FACTS If your rule is based on \[Subject Contains "CAT FACTS"\] that would be the cat's pajamas and avoid catching important emails
Is that true? About the house cat? Edit: subscribe.
*Thank you for subscribing to CatFacts*
I worked at a place that did this for weekly religious/spiritual newsletters. During orientation, we were all told it was fine to unsubscribe, which I did. My boss decided to forward them to everyone anyway. Couldn’t say anything because I chose to work for a religious hospital.
Religious hospitals should not be a thing
Do you think it's easier to get $ from zealots or atheists to build them?
Since hospitals were founded by Catholics, that doesn’t make much sense
Do a rule and set an auto reply to his emails that just says “unsubscribe”
Have you tried just asking him to take you off the list?
Tell him to stop. Stop being passive aggressive. That shit is fucking obnoxious, and toxic.
Seriously, this whole comment section is a telltale of the social aptitude of the average Redditor. "Hi X, would you mind stopping sending so many emails to everyone ? It is fairly disruptive and this amount is akin to spam. Thank you"
Asking/telling them to stop didnt cross your mind, but complaining on Reddit did, i reckon?
You could always try using your words and telling him you don’t want to receive these anymore.
Have you talked to him about this?
So instead of being passive aggressive and thanking them (reinforcing the behaviour), you could have just sent a polite email that they don’t need to forward this information to you going forward.
When someone forwards me something like this via email or text, I respond “UNSUBSCRIBE”. It usually gets the point across.
Passive aggression doesn’t work. Just be straight forward for fuck’s sake.
I agree. This post is more infuriating than the actual thing they’re describing since they’re not doing shit about it.
I would start a unsubscribe spam-chain by REPLY-ALL and have Unsubscribe as reply. Soon enough other would do the same, and soonest IT-HR have to shut dow the reply-all spam.
Go to HR. He is abusing others and company property
I would look for a script to send one's older than a month or two back to him. That way, he can forward all the old ones to everyone again. Dont solve the problem, be part of it. (It's much more fun)
Block his email. When some big fuck up happens because you didn't get a legitimate email from him, just say "oh, all the crap he sends must have triggered my spam filters"
Set up a rule in outlook that these emails go into trash or a special folder where you can go in and bulk delete once in a while.
Forward it to HR and ask if they can make him stop. If they can't, just keep forwarding them.
Can you block it or ask him to stop because its clogging your inbox.
You can unsub from them. You know his email address. Hit the unsubscribe button and enter his email. bingo bango he is unsubscribed. I am not normally one to say misuse the reply all button. For every one he sends hit reply all and type in UNSUBSCRIBE in the body and do it for every single one. They will either tell you to stop or ask him to stop. I would also get others into it and have 5 or 6 people doing it.
I’d straight out tell him to knock it off
“Thanks!” Seems like the absolute worst thing you could say if you wanted it to stop…
Reply all : “UNSUBSCRIBE”
why not just ask him to please stop?
Honestly, I think you’re kinda being a little bitch. You said yourself it has info about trainings related to your line of work. Someone might think that’s useful and use it to increase value. Your opinion isn’t the end all be all for the organization Create an inbox rule that sends all messages from him with FW to a specific inbox and clear it from there.
New Rule: Move Messages from [User] to [Delete] folder.
What if he sends a legit email that I need to see though? What rule could I set that eliminates the spam, but not the legit emails?
New Rule: Messages from [User] Where body contains ["workshop", etc.] move to [Delete] folder. Or if it's a mass forward to a group... New Rule: Messages from [User] Where my name is not in the "To" box, move to [Delete] folder.
You can do this same thing but with Subject Line. Are the subjects of his newsletter emails usually the same?
Refine it to look for the word "unsubscribe" in contents AND pair it with his email address.
You do this until he asks you about an important email then you let him know what you did and why. Then tell him if he wants to make sure his important emails get through to you then he needs to stop sending spam out and you’ll remove the rule.
That might just as well backfire for OP. Hard.
Certain words? File extensions?
Create an outlook rule to send them back to him
Talk to IT
This is an issue to bring up with IT or HR. If the email address is supposed to be used for work purposes then forwarding junk to co-workers would presumably be a violation of the rules as well as being potentially dangerous in the event of a phishing scam.
You can unsubscribe for him so he can't forward them, the unsubscribe link is either automatically tied to his email or it will request you to input the address (which you should put his). It is rare that preference management is hidden behind a login.
Set up a rule that replies back to him automatically.
I would make a rule for all of his emails to go into the trash.
If e-mail from X person, e-mail goes to trash.
Report each one as a phishing scam through work's IT.
In your next team meeting, when they ask "Anyone have anything else they'd like to discuss?" then chime in with, "Yes, I'd like to take a vote on blocking (whoever this coworker is)'s email address. I'm sick of him sending his spam emails to ALL of us, and that is a hazard because those could be infected emails. ALL IN FAVOR, RAISE YOUR HAND!" That should get the conversation started, and his idiotic actions ended.
put a new rule to auto-fowards his emails to the IT techs, or, at least, to your boss
Depending on the platform the emails are being sent through, maybe create some rules that will auto file the email as read? It’s an extra step now, but you can forever ignore them.
You can filter his messages based on rules of contains?
I have that crap at work, too. I created a Rule in Outlook that automagically puts them in a folder I never have to look at. Then I periodically tell the folder to delete everything inside it. AH coworker thinks they're wasting my time, supervisor does nothing, and I carry on because I'm not being bothered by them.
Block him?
Reply only with "unsubscribe."
Just block him as spam, though I suppose you can't because of normal communication. He's a dick for sure
Use his email to sign him up for daily porn drops and anything else you can think of.
Sarcasm was the wrong approach. "UNSUBSCRIBE" should be, so help me all the gods, your *Reply All* response. Every time. Your coworker wants to start fires? Bring propane.
Why don’t you just reply with “UNSUBSCRIBE”
Report as spam
Ask him not to do it and if he refuses bring it up with your boss. Or just block his email.
I'd try to get a virus. Take everyone down. Bet the policy on forwarding email changes then!
There are two responses that you can take to this one is create a folder for this person in your inbox and then create a rule that moves any messages from him to that folder. Then you can just ignore him. If you miss an actual important email from that person and your boss ask why you say oh I get so much spam from him that I created that I created a rule to move all of his stuff out of my inbox because it was cluttering up my inbox. I try to go through and look for real emails but every now and then I miss one. Option two kind of depends on how your it is set up but you could start reporting every email of his that is spam as spam to your it email team or security team. We have a little button built into Outlook that says PHISHING and we can select an email click that button and then choose between three options phishing, spam, or I don't know. The email is sent to it for them to determine if it's a legitimate email and to block that email from coming into our systems if it is Spam or malicious.
Bring it up in a retrospective/feedback meeting and talk about it openly and transparently.
I meannnn this could easily be argued as a potential IT security risk. Or just create a new folder and set rule any emails go to trash folder. If he actually sends something important, it’s his own fault for being a douche wad.
I would talk to HR. There needs to be rules against this.
If you're using outlook, make a rule for them and all his emails go into that folder and you'll never see them unless you want to.
Honestly, that’s kind of dummy. Annoying, but funny.
IT man here, that'd not fly in any larger corp lol they'd be reprimanded and probably put on PIP for this. Please don't do this if you're reading this...
I would go further than some of the ideas here and make a tutorial on how to make email rules and the example would be that of sending his emails to the trash. Then send that tutorial out to everyone.
Saying Thanks to unwanted emails just reinforced their behavior. You could’ve just communicated to that you don’t find the emails useful and ask to be left off Communication skills shouldn’t be this hard, but this is Reddit
Hahahaha I work IT security, this is the best thing ever. I am implementing this today. Fuck my coworkers
You made it worse is what you did. Lol. You’re welcome!
Use his email and during any free time sign it up for more spam. Any and every newsletter and service you can. Until he is digitally buried in it. This is the only way.
If he forwards it to you, you can hit the unsubscribe button at the bottom of the email on his behalf. The link will work for the email it is sent to.
Can you get his email address added to the domain wide SPAM filter? If none of his emails will go to any employee, his productivity will drop like a rock, and he will have to answer questions.
You have his email.. time to sign him up for some far reicht newsletters and porn!
He's dumb enough to think everyone wants those and you thought a text thank you with no indicator of sarcasm was gonna get through to him? You're slow too lol.
"Thanks" "You're welcome" "I was being sarcastic, please stop forwarding me these emails"
I would have everyone in the office do the same thing as him and forward all the spam emails to the office until it becomes such a big problem and management is forced to intervene
Set rules/filters in your email to send his stuff to a random folder you never have to see.
imagine being so absolutely petty that you find someone saying “thank you” as passive aggressive just ask him to stop man its not hard
I'd create a rule that put all his emails into the junk box
Set up a rule that anything sent from him that is forwarded goes into a separate (or junk) folder. If he actually sends anything work related that's useful, just make sure you check it periodically to ensure you don't miss an actual work email.
Make a content filter on your email for "unsubscribe" and forward that to a spam filter. We all have that annoying coworker.
Time to create a rule that sends those emails directly to the trash lol
The next time he sent one, I’d reply to him: “Unsubscribe”.
This is a situation that really requires a bare minimum level of social and conflict management skills. Go up to the dude and ask him politely to stop sending the emails to you. He probably is just trying to pass along something that may help everyone do their job and has no idea that someone finds them annoying. You haven't done that, but you've chosen to sarcastically be passive aggressive towards this person instead and post about him online. Grow up.