Reported by the BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1263000/1263917.stm
A chief executive who used an e-mail to threaten his staff with the sack
for being lazy has seen his company's share price collapse after the
message appeared on the Internet.
Neal Patterson, head of the Cerner Corporation in Kansas City, USA, had
no idea his private directive to staff would end up being seen by
millions of people on the world wide web.
In the three days after the publication of the message, shares in the
healthcare software development company plummeted 22% on the stock
market.
It never ceases to amaze me that people armed with a computer and e-mail
completely lose their common sense. However it seems to the the type of
e-mail that should never have been written let alone sent and not by a
senior person in the company. Gerald Ratner built up the family business,
piling it high, selling it cheap and making a fortune out of cut-price
jewelry. But a throw-away joke in a speech at the Royal Albert Hall in
front of Chancellor Norman Lamont brought his empire crashing down around
his ears. (he called a item he sold cr*p.) With the Internet the inept
director can find that it is even easier to ensure that bad news travels
faster and further. [Lord Wodehouse via risks-digest Volume 21, Issue 34]
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