Domino’s Viral Food Tampering

Can two employees destroy trust in a global brand overnight? What makes people behave so recklessly at work, and what can organisations do to prevent an internal problem becoming a full-blown reputational crisis? When employees go rogue, the consequences can be devastating, but the warning signs may have been there long before the crisis hits.

In this episode of What Just Happened?, Kate Hartley and Tamara Littleton revisit the infamous 2009 Domino’s Pizza crisis, when two employees filmed themselves contaminating food and uploaded the footage to YouTube. They’re joined by Emma Ewing, founder of Big Fish Training, to explore what the incident reveals about leadership, organisational culture and crisis preparedness.

The videos went viral, sales plummeted and hundreds of people lost their jobs. But beyond the immediate reputational damage, what was happening inside the organisation that allowed two employees to become so disconnected from their colleagues, customers and employer?

We explore the vital role managers play in employee engagement, why psychological safety can act as an early warning system for potential crises, and how a culture of blame can prevent communications teams from acting decisively when things go wrong.