Everyone loves a good holiday party scandal—learning office secrets from your boss after one too many glasses of eggnog, or watching your quietest coworkers unleash their inner beast while dancing on the desks. However, for the Utah state government, nothing can quite top the accidental damage caused by a reply-all email.
This is real and it’s an emergency. Started out as a potluck and $5 white elephant gift exchange in one department and someone accidentally cc’d every state employee. I fear this will never end. https://t.co/fL1NBOlsZW
— Spencer Cox (@SpencerJCox) December 7, 2018
Some good-natured government employee sent out an email asking who wanted to be included in the holiday potluck and $5 white elephant gift exchange. Soon, the replies began to pour in. To his horror, it turned out the entire Utah state government had been summoned to their holiday party via email.
Missed one of the best ones: bring a $5 white elephant gift pic.twitter.com/expBy8ychP
— Joe Dougherty 🇺🇸🇵🇹 (@PIO_Joe) December 7, 2018
25,000 government employees were CC’d on the invite. And, even worse, it appeared as though everyone felt compelled to reply with identical messages, all begging to be removed from the email chain. Several hours later, the mob had been quelled. Although the employee who sent the initial invite was never publicly named, needless to say, it seems as though they truly embodied the giving spirit of Christmas.