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In a bizarre turn of events that is going viral online, a company’s HR department accidentally sent out “termination” emails to its entire staff, including senior leadership and the CEO. The incident came to light after an employee shared it on Reddit.
In a mix-up now making waves online, an HR department accidentally sent out “termination” emails to every single employee–including senior executives and even the CEO. The chaotic incident came to light after one employee shared the story on Reddit.
In a post titled “HR accidentally sent everyone a ‘termination notice’ – including the CEO,” the user explained that the HR team had been testing a new offboarding automation system designed to send exit emails to departing employees. But someone apparently forgot to toggle the system from test mode to live mode. The result? Around 300 employees received an email that opened with the chilling line: “Your last working day is effective immediately.”
“The Slack went nuclear,” the Redditor wrote. “One manager replied, ‘Should I start packing?’” Soon after, the IT department had to step in with an all-caps clarification: “NO ONE IS FIRED. PLEASE DO NOT TURN IN YOUR BADGES.”
The HR team then followed up with a frantic Slack message: “Urgent – DO NOT PANIC. The automation tool just sent the test ‘termination’ email to everyone. You are NOT being fired. Please ignore the message.”
The Reddit user summed it up perfectly: “I don’t think anyone’s getting actual work done today.”
As the story spread across social media, users couldn’t help but laugh and speculate. “Any company that feels the need to have a tool like this in the first place I’d imagine is doomed to fail,” one joked. Another added a darkly comic twist: “Or, hear me out, everyone is getting fired and the email was programmed to go out, but someone messed up the dates. Plot twist, everyone will be fired, just not today.”
Others were more cautious. “OP, I would still probably look for another job. A test of a mass termination email does not bode well,” one user warned. Another quipped, “Accounting should do a cost analysis on how much that eff-up cost the company. If I got that email, I’m not working that day.”
But some saw the incident as a bad omen. “Extremely unprofessional reaction to the incident. I would absolutely be panicking because a real wave of layoffs is likely just around the corner,” one commenter wrote.
