MEDIA CENTRE

Sending an email in error can be a minor embarrassment - or it can cost you your job. Yet, with two million emails sent globally every second, it's no wonder that most of us have, at some time, forgotten our 'netiquette' and committed an email faux pas that has ended up causing offence, embarrassment, annoyance or even got us the sack.

officebroker.com, an online broker of serviced office space, has done some research on the subject.

Here are some of the best blunders it has come across:

• A business manager who accidentally sent details of all his employees' salaries on a company group email. Realising his error, he set the fire alarm off to clear the office before going round and deleting the email from every in-box.
• Following a sick day, an employee who sent an email to a friend explaining his illness was due to class As'. Unfortunately, he sent it to everyone in his company, including the senior management. He now works elsewhere.
• A police officer who sent an email to her colleagues asking, 'who stole my yoghurt out of the fridge?' Unfortunately she accidentally sent the email to the entire West Midlands police force and received many a reply, including 'Do you need CID? "Have you sealed off the area?"Has the dog unit been called?'