Who stole my yoghurt?

We report on the Internal Comms Hub this week that e-mail blunders happen somewhere in the world 42 times a minute, causing office conflicts and even getting people sacked, according to officebroker.com.

Funniest examples from Officebroker's blunder list are "A boss who sent out everyone's salary details to the entire company (realizing his error he faked a fire alarm and rushed to everyone's computers to erase his error)" and "A police officer who e-mailed her entire force by mistake to ask 'Who stole my yoghurt?' (replies included suggestions about sealing off the area and bringing in dog teams to search for criminal evidence)."

It sounds reminiscent of the shenanigans in Lucy Kellaway's masterpiece "Martin Lukes: Who moved my BlackBerry?"...

So far, I've managed to steer clear of e-mail gaffes (I think!), but it's left me wondering what exactly is the best way to clear up the mess of such cringeworthy mistakes - an apologetic e-mail, a face-to-face chat, a company meeting?

I'm interested to hear of any other horror stories and their outcomes/solutions from a comms point of view...

Soundtrack to the blog post: Communication Breakdown by Led Zeppelin