Personnel Today has caused a media frenzy after it broke ‘Swattergate’ – a series of e-mails from KPMG in which staff debated how to get rid of a fly in the office.
The Times, Telegraph, London Standard, Metro, Scotsman and even the Gulf Times in Qatar all ran stories detailing the fly-on-the-wall account of how KPMG’s service desk warned staff not use aerosols for safety’s sake and said it would contact their contract cleaning company to come up and deal with the lone menace.
Sources at KPMG say managers are hastily convening meetings with the press department at the corporate services giant to discuss the story.
Daniel Thomas, news editor at Personnel Today told the Standard: “It’s hard to believe such a minor issue has troubled the brains of one of the most successful firms in the world.”
The full transcript of the exchanges is as follows:
From: Victoria
Sent: 01 June 2005 11:32
To: UK-FM Facilities Servicedesk
Subject: None
We have a fly in our department (5th floor South) and it has been here since Thursday (last week). I was wondering if you have anything that can get rid of him
From: UK-FM Facilities Servicedesk
Sent: 01 June 2005 14:14
To: Victoria
Subject: RE:
Victoria
Due to Health & Safety regulations aerosol fly killers are no longer permitted. If you wish to take this further I can log a call with the cleaning company for someone to come and try to swat the fly, but as I understand it a fly’s lifespan is less than a week, so a natural death may soon occur.
Susan
From: Victoria
Sent: 01 June 2005 15:15
To: UK-FM Facilities Servicedesk
Subject: RE:
I have passed on your comments to my colleague and he has asked if you could supply with some fly swats by the end of the day
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From: UK-FM Facilities Servicedesk
Sent: 01 June 2005 15:43
To: Victoria
Subject: RE:
I’ve logged this with ISS for you; it’s Request 15534
