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According to the article, it was an accident. Link to the article is below.
"Stripe, a payment technology company and the Bay Area’s second most valuable startup, sent layoff notices to 300 workers Monday - accidentally sending a cartoon picture along with the news. The picture, attached as a PDF, is a cartoon image of a yellow duckling, with the label, “US-Non-California Duck”, according to reports from Business Insider. Rob McIntosh, the company’s chief people officer, sent an email that expressed his regret to those who received the duck. “I apologize for the error and any confusion it caused," he added. "Corrected and full notifications have since been sent to all impacted Stripes," he shared, using the company’s internal nickname for its workers."
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chriswestfall/2025/01/22/when-you-cant-duck-layoffs-stripe-sends-cartoon-to-fired-employees/
While I agree, this is not something that should be taken lightly, people sometimes screw up in the weirdest of ways. And for this to get so far and through checks and balances...it tells me that people had mentally checked out. Could be from stress...could be from people being asked to send out a communication and knowing they would be included in the layoffs. Hard to say.
But yes...added care should be taken when handling such notices.
I can see someone playfully including the image in a draft copy as a coping mechanism related to their stress/anxiety. The lesson for them...don't do that. Cope through a medium that is not going to be mass-distributed later.
But I promise you this...whomever did it likely feels horrible without anyone else applying pressure upon them.
I would be apoplectic. I'm so confused as to how this can ever happen. I've never written a mass lay off email, but you'd think it'd be the sort of thing you quintuple check before hitting send on...
Accidents happen. If I had to guess, someone probably meant to send it to a peer who was collaborating on the assignment as a stress relief and forgot to remove it from the official communication.
Dumb? Yes. But it happens.
I get that sending the ducky picture was an accident I do but firing or laying off employees via email was pretty crappy anyway they could’ve sent some kind of formal communication and honestly I know typo is an accident happen but somebody should’ve double and triple checked the firing email before sending it off
What the duck?
What the duck?