HR accidentally sent 'termination' letter to 300 workers — including the CEO
'Your last working day is effective immediately,' it stated.
The HR department of a company sent everyone a "termination notice," including the CEO, then apologized, saying it was just an accident. The employee (u/apprehensive_show561) shared the suspicious goof-up on Reddit on November 9. So far, the post has received 42k upvotes online.
Apparently, the HR team was testing a new offboarding automation tool that sends templated exit emails, and someone forgot to switch from test mode to live mode. Consequently, all 300 employees, including the higher-ups, received the termination notice. It stated, "Your last working day is effective immediately." The blunder had the office in disarray, leaving everyone shocked. Moreover, a manager had even reacted to the email, asking, "Should I start packing?" Looking at the confusion, the IT department flung into action; they posted an all-caps message saying, "NO ONE IS FIRED. PLEASE DO NOT TURN IN YOUR BADGES."
Sending an unannounced email to all employees is already concerning, but the bigger issue here is the company’s apparent plan to handle terminations via email rather than in person. Now, it's not the first time a company has planned to terminate its employees through an email; sadly, it's happening more often than not. In fact, Melissa Jezior, president and chief executive officer of Eagle Hill Consulting, said, "Implementing a large-scale layoff does present logistical challenges for employers. But employers should make every effort to tell employees face-to-face that they've lost their job." The survey also found that the majority (85%) of US employees say layoffs via email are wrong, and 72% of them prefer an in-person meeting to provide notification of a layoff.
The post received an overwhelming reaction from people. In fact, a majority of the audience suggested that the author immediately start looking for jobs because the company is possibly preparing for a mass layoff. For instance, u/candylandmine commented, "That's very suspicious. It sounds to me like they're getting ready for bulk terminations, and they messed up during their testing." Similarly, u/peppabuddha recalled, "My HR sent the company a spreadsheet with everyone's personal information, including salary information. They didn't bother to password-protect it and then told us we'd be terminated if we opened it, LOL, like it was our fault. That HR person never got fired for it either."
u/rich1051414 suggested, "You start looking anyway. This was an accident, but what if what they were testing to do is not? There is about to be a huge wave of layoffs. Probably the day after the next record profits." u/dealeralarmed3632 commented, "I'm betting it wasn't a mistake. They don't want to mass fire people, but they have to cut costs. They want them to quit on their own, so this is weeding out a bunch of folks they don't have to pay severance/unemployment to before they actually start culling the herd." u/competitiveemu1100 wrote, "When they say 'everyone, including the CEO,' got the email, that’s the HR covering up to mean the CEO got the 'this is the list of employees that were terminated' email or just completely lying to not spook everyone. I’d treat this as if they tested the subset they were going to fire and leave immediately."
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