I recently received a critical email from someone who works at a company I deal with. It made a number of broad and inaccurate criticisms of some work I'd done. Copying in several managers for good measure

After of read it I got a mail recall notice, saying that the sender was recalling the mail and to disregard it. I guess it was meant delete automatically but didn't as I'm on a different mail system.

A day later they have sent nothing else.

But how should I respond, I feel these criticisms are still hanging but have no idea who read the email and don't know how to respond appropriately.

Should I just ignore it?

Should I just ignore it?

Chances are that this person realized that their criticism was broad and inaccurate after sending the email (and perhaps checking your work again), and retracted the email when they found out.

I suggest you don't reply back and let it be, but still keep in mind what happened in case you notice any further suspicious or inaccurate activity from this person.

To make things crystal clear, you could also approach this person privately (perhaps go to their desk, or IM them directly) and tell them you noticed the email and its retraction, and would like to know the reason and if there is still something you can do to address the things stated in the email.

Keep in mind that, if you do this you have to be careful and polite, and only do it if you sense this person will not take it the wrong way.

As mentioned in comments, it is probable that the sender didn't intend to send the email to you in first place, so tread lightly here. Perhaps the "safest" course of action, as suggested before, would be not to reply back and be prepared for what you think could come based on the contents and intention of the email.

Do not respond to the email via a reply. They retracted it so they realized it was the wrong thing to do.

But, do not ignore the email either. For right or wrong, they feel/felt that you didn't perform adequately. Put aside yourself for a moment and really consider if they have ANY valid points at all. If they do, these are things you need to improve upon. If not, then chalk it up to an overly emotional/critical response (which is why they recalled it).

Prepare a response, but do not send. Yet.

You have the luxury of knowing what was going to be sent and to who; as well it seems they believe you haven't seen it.

If there are any valid criticisms (however poorly phrased), focus on how you can improve on these areas so when/if the e-mail is sent properly you will have addressed that concern and demonstrated your ability in your office.

I do not recommend responding to the e-mail. It was not meant to be sent and not meant to be responded to. Consider it a little window into how someone might think about your performance and how you should regard that person from now on.

If your direct manager didn't receive it AND still have a copy, forward it to them and ask them for a meeting to discuss the contents. Before the meeting go through the email carefully and make notes for each point with facts to back up any disagreements with their statements. During the meeting, go through your notes and present your case. Do it as unemotionally as possible.

Ask your manager if there's anything left that s/he is concerned about and what your next steps should be. I would assume (hope?) that your manager will handle it from here.

An example based on something I've observed to happen in the past, similarly regarding feedback on a collaborative project.

You will know better from the context, but it may have been that the email was written as a joke, to let off some frustration connected with your project, but never intended to be sent. Then later the writer hit 'send' rather than 'delete', by accident.

As a result of this experience (the repercussions I wasn't party to, but it wasn't a disaster), I always make sure to delete the 'to' when writing a reply to an email in anger (or just drafting something confrontational).

Look at the possibilities.

1) The email deletion was specific to you, the email was still sent to the managers.

2) The deletion was for everyone, but it also didn't work for everyone else, so the email was still received by one or more of the managers.

3) The deletion was effective for everyone else and no-one but the writer ever saw the email.

As OP says there were "broad and inaccurate criticisms" if this was within your own company I would do a measured response, pointing out why those comments are wrong. If situation 1 or 2 is the case, this is probably the most appropriate response. In situation 3, this would mean exposing the original criticisms to managers who hadn't actually seen them, but if the writer was mentioning it in an email, it may already be muttered about at their workplace and still gives you a chance to get your point of view out there.

However, because it was in a different company, you should let your own direct manager know and discuss with them if they are okay with your planned response before doing anything.

You could also send a short email to the writer, saying "I saw this and think there are some misunderstandings, I'll send out a more detailed email to all the recipients to deal with it point by point." That gives them a heads up that you received the email and gives them a chance to let their managers know if they goofed in sending the original email out at all.

The accepted answer suggests

this person realized that their criticism was broad and inaccurate after sending the email (and perhaps checking your work again), and retracted the email when they found out.

I don't think that's very probable. It's more probable they realized they included the OP as a receiver, which they hadn't intended. They wanted to complain about the OP to other people, not include him among the receivers. This kind of mistakes happens so frequently in offices.

It's hard to believe the colleague took time to write a long, detailed email and then simply decided everything they wrote was wrong and shouldn't have been written.

So how should the OP react?

Constructively. He shouldn't pretend he hasn't got anything.

Instead, he should 1) talk to the person and take a stance on the criticism, or ever 2) reply to everybody.

In both situations they should say/ write something like:

I realize this email has been retracted after being sent, but I couldn't help and read it.

Then the OP should take a fair stance on the criticism, not acting defensively but also not accepting the blame for what wasn't his fault. He should propose a solution how the cooperation between him and the colleague can be made better in the future.

Which should he chose, 1) or 2)? It depends on the situation. We don't have enough details on the political situation in their workplace and their political strength to tell him which solution makes more sense.