It was red faces all round in Cisco’s HR department last week
when confidential staff appraisal information was accidentally sent to hundreds
of staff in an e-mail.
The incident happened when a spreadsheet containing appraisal rankings was
e-mailed to around 300 marketing staff.
A Cisco source said the employee had meant to send the e-mail to a senior
executive. Employees were ranked in the spreadsheet and junior staff were able
to access their bosses’ appraisals.
One member of staff said: "Everyone in my section was giggling about it
– my boss’s boss got one of the worst ratings out of everyone."
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The company launched an immediate damage-limitation exercise, sending out an
e-mail explaining that the rankings were still being compiled.
A Cisco spokeswoman said the company would be re-assessing its policy.
"The employee who sent the e-mail did so in an unauthorised fashion. This
is against our written policy which says such data should not be distributed by
e-mail," she said.
