An extremely tired German bank employee fell asleep on his keyboard and accidentally turned what was to be a small money transfer into a $293 million order.
Now it’s not that uncommon to nod off to sleep for a little cat nap while sitting at work, and it’s not all that uncommon to let a simple mistake slip through when reviewing work, but, when a large money order slips through the cracks, that can cause some big trouble.
The German Banker was supposed to make a simple transfer of 62.40 euros from a bank account belonging to a retiree.
Sources say that after nodding off to sleep, the banker accidently typed in 222,222,222.22 euro order, equaling out to $293 million in US currency.
The banker’s 48-year-old colleague apparently missed the error and verified that it was correct.
It wasn’t until shortly after that the bank discovered the error, and it was quickly corrected. Once the error was corrected, the colleague was fired for allowing such a major error slip through the cracks.
Mistakes happen, it’s true. But mistakes this large, should they go unpunished? Yes, the banker’s colleague did let a very large mistake slip through, but should he be blamed for the mistake of the napping banker?
MsnNOW said the following: “The fired colleague took the case to court where the judge ruled he should get his job back. No word on whether the cat-napper lost his job”.
Can’t help but wonder if there will be any other repercussions for the banker who actually fell asleep and made the numerical mistake. If letting an incorrect order through merited the loss of a job, it’s not unreasonable to question what the banker’s blunder could have amounted to.
Based on the Hessen labour court’s ruling, it would seem as if the German bank employee’s accidental transfer was just that, and accident. Who knows, an incident like this one may teach us all to not fall asleep on the job!
