h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As part of my job, I recieve letters sent by e-mail from employees working from home, print them out and send them on by mail. When I print them, I am told to put the letters 'pp' next to the employees' name at the bottom, and sign my own name in the space above.
What exactly does 'pp' stand for? If it isn't obvious from that, what does it mean? Whjat about 'cc', which I know from emails, but never actually thought to understand? And when did we start using things like pp and cc anyway?

'p.p.' is quite old and stand for 'per procurationem' - it basically means that the person who signs (you) is acting on behalf of the person who gets the 'p.p.' next to their name.

'cc' I've only ever seen on e-mails, but for something so techno-whizzy, I believe the initials refer to 'carbon copy' - so presumably it dates back to typewriters.

I think it's carbon copy in its metaphorical sense meaning 'exact copy'.

B

What about 'BCC', the one where the main recipient doesn't see the other recipient?

BCC = Blank Carbon Copy


This is a computer terminology, compared to the others being more antiquated.

bcc = blind carbon copy - ie a copy to someone without anyone else knowing they've been sent it.

pp used to be quite common when the boss would dictate all his correspondence and then go down the pub - er, sorry - to an important meeting, leaving the typists and secretaries to do all the work. (And make sense of his ramblings.)

In Germany, the "pp" before a signature has a completely different meaning - it's practically only the CEO who's allowed to use it. Strangely enough, though, it stands for the same as given above: per procura/per procurationem.

CC for carbon copy is also always given on anything written. Quite obviously so that everyone who gets it knows who else has seen it. It was quite a struggle getting six sheets of paper with carbon paper into the machine, I can tell you. Thank heavens for photocopiers.

oh the good old days... and wasn't correcting 6 carbon copies an absolute party!!!

I use pp when I sign anything - instead of the more usual iA in German.

And, is it just me or do other people think this way: if I receive an email as a cc recipient, I don't feel it necessary to take action. I'm just an observer, as it were.

Or is that just a hangover from my military days?

Isn't there an important legal meaning - if you sign pp you can be held responsible, whereas something like 'signed in the absence of...' is safer?

Must look it up

I hope that's what CC's are for, Sho. I've always expected them to mean that - whether I've written them or whether I've received them.

Except that with e-mails, you have to check carefully if you're the original recipient or the CC-recipient. In the old days, you could tell if it was the original or the carbon copy by the quality of print.

yep, I treat cc's as including those who should be aware of the issues but not necessarily the primary target of the info or actions.
bcc is when you want to include your manager on an email chain with awkward g!ts but don;t want them to know you are giving them enough rope to hang themselves with!

On the flip side I know of at least one manager who if he is not the first 'To:' recipient goes nuts. He sees the order of recipients as a hierarchical order of importance. Thus if emailing the CEO, your manager and a team leader it should be in the order. Some people have such fragile egos. I used to deliberately put him on the end.

However the best inventions in email email are the 'confirm delivery' and 'trace entire route' options.

you want to try working for a Korean company... man oh man the problems I've had explaining

To: lowly minion such as myself
cc: all the managers who didn't do what they were supposed to and should now watch while we clean up their mess
bcc: all my colleagues who chortled with me while said "managers" were ... well, not managing

and I always put them in a seemingly random order, just to annoy them

With the number of people of varying importance that I send stuff to, I adopt the simple expedient of listing them in alphabetical order. Anyone with half a brain can see that this is what I've done, therefore no hierarchy can be assumed or inferred. I don't give a shit about the opinions of those with less than half a brain (we call those people "Marketing", "Human Resources", "Internal Communications" etc).

RF

>>However the best inventions in email email are the 'confirm delivery' and 'trace entire route' options.<<
I don't have to confirm the delivery of an email in Outlook Express, and apparently, gmail doesn't even have this option.

most of us who run the ratrace treadmil for big companies do, though, and it's great.

You can even see if they opened it. Saves me a lot of "oh I didn't get that info" arguments

Oh yes, and it is so satisfying in a meeting with the customer and senior manager for your PM to say 'Well, I never got that email' and then you pull out the receipt and 'read at:' receipt. Of course, I always play the 'Oh, you best get group IT onto it as the systems says you did'.

Why is it that only people who are no good at it play office politics? They get trounced by everyone else who is good at it but realises it gets you nowhere?

One very important use for "BCC" is when you're sending a circular e-mail to all your suppliers/clients. It might not be a good idea for them to know who their competitors are.

In private e-mails, this can also be very important - some people might not want others to know their e-mail address.