Can you forgive Aviva for accidentally firing 1299 of their staff by email?

Aviva for accidentally firing 1299 of their staff by email

As HR mistakes go this one is right up there. On Friday 20th April, Aviva's asset management arm, Aviva Investors, dismissed the entire global workforce, more than 1300 strong by mass email.

Fortunately a grovelling email was sent minutes later that retracted the mass firing and apologised for the mistake which was blamed on a clerical error. At that point 1299 people drew a collective sigh of relief and the one person who was due to be fired by email "got the Aviva deal" and made their way to the exit.

Helpfully,The Telegraph obtained a copy of the mass mailer, which ends: "I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and wish you all the best for the future." What a nice human touch!

Sometimes I wonder a little about HR people. They sign up for the job because they want to help people, but spend most of their time figuring out how to get rid of staff without getting the company sued.

So do you think that Aviva and their HR department deserve your virtualForgiveness?

Vote Saint to forgive the kindly Aviva HR angels after all they did send the email to one correct recipent.

Vote Sinner to condemn the Aviva HR department to HR hell!

Anyway I bet that there is a least one member of the Aviva HR team looking forwards to reading their email on Monday, let's hope that they don't get a nasty surprise.