In a more contemporary version of the old “Reply All” disaster, LinkedIn employees found themselves in an awkward position recently when an internal list of approximately 500 names became accessible to anyone within the company. Obviously, the discovery triggered panic among workers who feared they might be for the chop. Turns out, they were right.

Mysterious List Emerges on GroupID Tool

This startling revelation came about when a LinkedIn employee posted on Blind, an anonymous job-posting site that verifies employment via company email addresses. The post referred to a potential "kill list" of employees slated for upcoming layoffs.

Rumors began to circulate within the company following the Blind post. The LinkedIn employee who had posted on Blind noticed a new list named "OctoberUpdate" on LinkedIn's GroupID tool, a third-party system. The tool enables employees to add themselves and others to teams, manage group calendar events, and exchange emails.

The list contained hundreds of names, causing a frenzy among LinkedIn workers. Although it hasn’t proved possible to independently verify the list's completeness, a LinkedIn spokesperson confirmed the company's use of GroupID to create and manage distribution lists.

Access Denied and Unexplained Tool Glitches

The GroupID tool became inaccessible to LinkedIn staff on Sunday, and many encountered slow loading times, which no doubt helped their anxiety no end. The exact cause of the internal tool's inaccessibility remains uncertain, but it is believed that a surge in user traffic led to the slowdown. Obviously, if you’re concerned you’re on the list, you’ll be rushing to check it.

A wonderfully-worded email (that was seen by Business Insider) was sent out at 4 am by the company’s internal comms team:
"We've heard that you may be experiencing issues accessing Go/GroupID. We're looking into it and appreciate your patience as we work through the issue. There is no ETA at the moment."

What a response.

Lessons in HR?

LinkedIn eventually confirmed the layoffs, impacting over 600 employees, and sent a company-wide email to communicate this decision, which was nice of them. Now everyone knows you’re gone.

In this situation, many LinkedIn employees found themselves in limbo, awaiting an email to determine whether they were among those laid off. Those who received notices had to attend meetings to discuss the logistics of leaving the company.

LinkedIn assured impacted employees that they would be treated with care and respect during the layoffs. How about not posting a list of soon-to-be-terminated employees where it can be read by all?

The key to all this is to, perhaps, be a little more careful over where you’re saving your documents, in an age where we all use communal, online tools, perhaps we’re becoming a little lax.

We’re off to check what’s sitting in draft on our backend, or perhaps our homepage.