Leaks can tell us a lot about an organization. Sometimes the public face of a person or company is very different from the private one. For example, based on what their email filter screens, Goldman Sachs is not run by scary finance overlords, but by your grandpa who doesn’t understand where the punch card goes in your laptop.
CNBC got their hands on Goldman Sachs’ email flagging list. Despite how it sounds, email flagging is a common thing on internal company networks; this is why you shouldn’t send personal email over your work accounts. Generally email flagging is limited to a small set of phrases that are clear hints of misbehavior. But Goldman went just a wee bit overboard, including common phrases like “I am not a happy camper” and almost every possible variation of the word “f***” you could use in the workplace, from “don’t you f***ing understand” to “what i f***ing said.”
What’s particularly funny is that the full list includes just about every conceivable innocent phrase you could use in an email as well, most notably generic legal language like “for internal use only,” bland email pleasantries like “I’ve been trying to reach you,” and reassurances like “don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.” Goldman must have been flagging thousands of emails that there was no point in reading.
We just hope whoever had to put together this list didn’t have to read the emails too.
(via CNBC)