Last week everyone was talking about the secretary, her ketchup, her boss and his trousers over at law firm Baker and McKenzie.
Now, thanks again to the beauty of the leaked email, we've been offered another glimpse into the whacky world of the corporates, this time at accountants KPMG where it seems they have a bit of an insect problem.
Earlier this month a KPMG employee named 'Lucy' was so annoyed about a fly in her office that had been there for a few days that she composed an email and sent it to the firm's 'facilities service desk'.
11:32am: We have a fly in our department and it has been here since last Thursday. I was wondering if you have anything that can get rid of him.
At 2:14pm the reply came back from 'Susan' at the services desk:
Due to health and safety regulations, aerosol fly killers are no longer permitted 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.
Apparrently the exchange continues until 3:43pm during which time the ins and outs of fly swatting is discussed at length.
The e-mails, which were leaked to Personnel Today magazine, who themselves have said "It's hard to believe such a minor issue has troubled the brains of one of the most successful firms in the world."
Meanwhile managers at KPMG are apparently "hastily convening meetings with the press department to discuss the story" and have admitted admitted that the e-mails were genuine and that "the exchange lacked common sense".
So: to swat or not to swat? What would you have done? Rolled up newspaper? Trap it in a glass? Keep it in a matchbox and train it to do tricks?
