Carat's layoff plans revealed by botched email

Ian Lamont — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:28:25 -0700

Misdirected email has been around for decades. Still, many people have yet to realize that sensitive messages should be treated with extreme care -- one fatuous click can result in confidential information being distributed to the wrong people, leading to disaster. Carat's New York HR chief found this out the hard way, after forwarding a list of upcoming layoff talking points intended for senior management to all of the marketing agency's staff in the United States, according to AdAge:

"While the documents don't detail how many employees will be laid off, they do say the agency plans to consolidate its buying team in New York and that the changes will be announced later this month. Repeatedly describing the moves as a "right-sizing" of the agency, the documents also indicate that offices including Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and San Francisco are affected, and that the changes are a response to the loss of key pieces of business and reduction in client spending. "

AdAge reports that the agency's "chief people officer" in New York was responsible. The company's IT group attempted to halt distribution of the message and its attachments, but it was not in time.

Carat focuses on "interactive television" and the Internet for its clients but AdAge notes that the firm has recently lost several important clients, including Hyndai and New Line Cinema.

Special Feature: The iPhone naysayers, one year later
Special Feature: The Digital Home of 2013: 10 consumer technologies that will succeed, and five that will fail
Special Feature: Where are they now? The Industry Standard tracks down 10 dot-coms from the Web bubble of the late 1990s