According to its website, Aviva Investors prides itself in offering excellent global asset management services. But when it comes to staff management, the investment branch of the world’s sixth largest insurer takes a slightly different approach.
Last Friday an email was accidentally sent to the entire workforce of Aviva Investors, some 1,300 employees, informing them that they were fired.
All employees were required to hand over company property, along with any security passes they possessed. “I am required to remind you of your contractual obligations to the company you are leaving,” the letter stated. “You have an obligation to retain any confidential information pertaining to Aviva Investors operations, systems and clients."
Not all employees were so discreet. The story hit the newspapers the next morning.
Apparently the email was originally intended for one staff member who was leaving the company that day. Management realised the error, and retracted the message some 25 minutes later. What happened in those intervening moments is anyone’s guess, but it wouldn’t be surprising if the sender of the email quickly became one of its casualties.