HR blunder sends “You’re Fired” email to entire company including CEO
An HR software glitch led to chaos after a company accidentally emailed termination notices to all 300 employees — including the CEO. The mix-up, caused during a tool test, went viral after being shared on Reddit.
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In what might go down as one of the most chaotic corporate mix-ups of the year, a company’s HR department accidentally sent a termination email to every employee including the CEO, after a technical glitch during a software test.
The bizarre incident surfaced on Reddit’s r/Wellthatsucks thread, where an employee recounted how the HR team was testing a new offboarding automation tool meant to streamline exit formalities for departing staff. Unfortunately, someone forgot to toggle the system from “live mode” to “test mode.”
Within seconds, around 300 employees received an email that began with the subline “Your last working day is effective immediately.”
According to the Reddit post, confusion quickly erupted across the company’s internal channels. “Slack went nuclear,” the employee wrote, describing a scene of collective panic and disbelief. One manager reportedly messaged the team asking, “Should I start packing?”
It took the IT department several minutes to step in and contain the chaos, eventually sending an urgent all-staff message in all caps, “NO ONE IS FIRED. PLEASE DO NOT TURN IN YOUR BADGES.”
Internet Reacts...
The Reddit post soon went viral, racking up over 40,000 upvotes and hundreds of comments. Users alternated between disbelief and laughter, sharing their own tales of workplace misfires.
One user quipped, “That one guy who just thumbs it up was like, ‘Damn, well ok, guess I’m fired.’”
Another joked, “If you’re stupid enough to fire me this way, I didn’t want to work there anyway.”
Others found the automation attempt itself concerning. “Any company that needs a mass termination tool is doomed to fail,” one commenter wrote, while another added, “They’re testing software to automate layoffs — that’s the real red flag.”
One user summed up the chaos perfectly with a jab, “Nobody is fired, I repeat, nobody is fired. Except you, Bob — come see me in my office.”
While the company’s name hasn’t been disclosed, the viral mix-up serves as a reminder of how automation without oversight can backfire spectacularly, especially when it comes to people’s livelihoods.
