Aviva accidentally 'sack' 1,300 staff after forwarding goodbye email to everyone



Blunder: The Human Resources department at Aviva Investors in Britain accidentally sent out a goodbye email to 1,300 staff

A blundering Aviva Investors worker accidentally 'sacked' 1,300 staff by email after forwarding a 'goodbye' email to everyone.

The message, sent out by the company's human resources department on Friday, was supposed to go to one worker who was leaving that day.

It told all staff: 'I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and wish you all the best for the future.'

Within minutes bosses realised what had happened and 25 minutes later the email was recalled.

A second email was sent to all staff apologising for the mistake.



Aviva Investors are the investment arm of Aviva insurers and have an office in London.



The email was a standard message sent to people leaving the company, covering things such as handing back company equipment and confidentiality rules.

A spokesman said the message did not tell people that they were fired.

Aviva is the world's sixth-largest insurance group and the investment arm manages assets of more than £262 billion.

It said in January it would shed around 160 jobs, about 12 percent of its global workforce.

Aviva Investors spokesman Paul Lockstone said: 'An email which was intended for a member of staff who was leaving today was accidentally sent to all Aviva Investors staff worldwide,' Lockstone said.

'People were pretty quickly aware of the fact that this was a mistake ... I don't believe any of our staff would have seen it really as anything other than the mistake that it was.'