How to stop a reply-allpocalypse from spiraling out of control

How to stop a reply-allpocalypse from spiraling out of controlHow to stop a reply-allpocalypse from spiraling out of controlWeve all seen it. Our inbox count rising by the second. The ignored please do not Reply All request. The question why am I getting this? that repeats again and again in a matter of minutes. You welcheste time fighting to delete the avalanche of e-mails.The Reply-All-Ocaplyse has begun.If youve started the thread - usually by accident - then you are a helpless spectator. If youre a recipient, youre probably annoyed and stopped reading the responses.And who can forget the horror stories? One banks 250,000 employees spent hours in vain responding to a thread that sent Blackberrys buzzing for days. One reply-all chain tied up 1.2 million employees of the UKs National Health Service. Time Inc. was rendered helpless last year by an hours-long chain. 450 journalists (including our editor) tested their wits against each other for hours- while others prayed for escape - on an schmelzglas thread related to controversial pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli.There was a marketing assistant who was waiting for a large order of T-shirts for a convention with the company logo that everyone was to wear at the event, reminisces career coach Jane Jackson. The assistant had been hassled by a number of people about when they would arrive and when the box of shirts finally arrived he sent an e-mail to everyone stating in capital letters, IVE GOT THE SHIRTSUnfortunately the assistant forgot the R.But this misery isnt inevitable. This electronic scourge can be stopped.Heres how.Dont enable Reply AllYou can create an e-mail thread without the ability to REPLY ALL, nipping this professional annoyance in the bud.For Microsoft Outlook users, you can remove the vorkaufsrecht from the toolbar, preventing the headache before it may ever begin. William Zhou lays out the steps on the Microsoft Office TechCenter site.Another option for Outlook users is the TuneReplyAll - yeah, thats the real site - add on for Outlook. This triggers a confirmation window that asks if you are sure you want to Reply All to this e-mail.Gmail users in most cases are by default set only to reply to a single individual. But company admins can ensure this is the case for business e-mail accounts by adjusting the default reply behavior, in the settings menu.You can always play it safe by crafting the e-mail and addressing the recipients in the BCC field. This prevents your eager e-mail readers who lack impulse control from replying back to everyone.Mute the email threadIf you are on the receiving end of the REPLY ALL message torrent, simply muting your Gmail thread will prevent the notification alerts.For Outlook users, there is an ignore feature under the home tab.Delete your repliesOn the other hand weve all experienced the sinking dread after weve sarcastically replied to an e-mail and realized you may have accidentally hit REPLY ALL. Some of us have dodged that bullet, breathing a sigh of relief. Others, unfortunately, have not- and, depending on the content, could be in serious professional jeopardy.If you use Gmail or Outlook I urge you to set up the delayed e-mail function. This makes it easy to undo an e-mail up to 30 seconds after you click send. This is usually the window when you notice an egregious spelling error or that you absent-mindedly forgot to attach a file - or hit REPLY ALL with an inappropriate .gif response.Apologize if all other options have been exhaustedOf course, its better to think before you furiously type and click. But if the message has gone and you are not able to recall it, then its time to eat humble pie, Jacksontells Ladders.If youre ever in this situation, dont panic.Contact each recipient individually, explain what happened and apologize profusely. Dont do this via e-mail. Pick up the phone to call them and apologize personally, Jackson says. The dicke bretter bohren mssen with e-mails is that tone of voice can not be conveyed. You could say that your response was sent in haste and didnt reflect what you really meant to express.