‘Last working day’: HR sends ‘termination notice’ to entire staff; in internet partition

In a bizarre turn of events that has left the internet in splits, the human resources (HR) department has sent ‘termination’ letters to everyone. In a post on Reddit, a user shared that this unique incident happened while the HR team was testing a new offboarding automation tool aimed at sending templated exit emails.

The Redditor further revealed that someone forgot to switch the system from ‘Test Mode’ to ‘Live Mode’, informing all recipients that their “last working day is effective immediately”. The post titled ‘HR accidentally sent “termination notices” to everyone – including the CEO’ was shared by r/Wellthatsucks.

“This morning, 300 employees (including leadership) received an email beginning with: ‘Your last work day is effective immediately’,” the user wrote along with a screenshot of the message.

The post also mentions that Slack has gone ‘nuclear’, with one manager asking, “Should I start packing?”

The employee further explained that the IT department immediately intervened and sent an all-caps message to everyone clarifying the situation: “No one has been fired. Please do not change your badges”.

post on reddit It quickly gained popularity and users found humor in this significant corporate blunder. Many users also shared their experiences of chaos at the workplace.

“If you live in a country with decent workers’ rights, this can be a blessing. I wanted to leave my company, and then at the right moment, they told me I would be made redundant, so I would get three months’ salary and could stop working immediately. It was great!” One user wrote.

“To be honest, I’ve had some jobs where my energy was like ‘If you’re really stupid enough to fire me, there’s no way I want to work for you.’ I’ve had some jobs where I would just give this message a thumbs-up and then start packing my stuff,” said another.

Responding to the post, one person wrote, “Extremely unprofessional response to the incident. I would be absolutely terrified as a real wave of layoffs is about to happen.”

One user said, “I think any company that is the first to feel the need for a tool like this is doomed to fail.”

Earlier, a text exchange went viral online in which a manager was scolding an employee for the level of formality in his sick leave message. The conversation showed a manager scolding his employee for not calling him ‘sir’ when the employee sent a direct message informing his manager that he was unwell.