Humiliation: City intern Lucy Gao

 

 

 

When city intern Lucy Gao sent out invites for her 21st birthday party champagne reception at the Ritz she thought a short email would do the trick.

But what started as note to a select group of friends has entertained tens of thousands, as the Oxford engineering student's bossy email was forwarded to office workers across the city.

 

The lowly intern has been derided by recipients for her 'control freakery' and extravagance. The venue she chose for her landmark birthday was the opulent Rivoli Bar in London's Ritz which has polished wood panelled walls and leopard-skin chairs.

Miss Gao opened the invite by briefly thanking her friends for confirming they would attend. She then launched into 350 words of instructions about precisely where they should go and when.

The honoured few were given slots in staggered arrival times and told that if they had any problems on the night to call her 'PA', who appears to be a friend designated to deal with any queries during the party.

Miss Gao, a student at Balliol college in Oxford, writes: "Please read ALL the following to ensure your entry into the Ritz.

"I have arranged the Ritz to host a Champagne Reception with a selection of Ritz Champagne for all my guests, this will be on me so please come and indulge.

"A specially made birthday cake has also been ordered and the Ritz waiters will kindly serve you each a generous slice with Ritz cutleries, etc... also on me."

Miss Gao is a Citigroup intern in Real Estate Equity Research at the global bank's London headquarters in Canary Wharf.

She planned her party last Friday like a military operation - complete with timetable and a strict dresscode. Men were to wear shirts, jackets and ties while women should stick to cocktail dresses and skirts.

Putting her mobile number, direct line at work and fax number at the bottom, guests were certainly able to contact Miss Gao with any quibbles about what to wear.

They were strictly told the reception in the hotel's intimate bar would start at 9pm, with photographs being taken at 10pm. For the 10.30pm slot the instruction reads simply: 'Blowing candles'.

Miss Gao's group of revellers would then go on to the exclusive Pangaea nightclub in Mayfair at midnight.

One party-goer was so stunned by the precise instructions they forwarded it on to another intern at Citigroup. She sent it to 12 colleagues in her department with just one sentence at the top - 'Her best yet...enjoy'.

From there the email was sent round the company, and forwarded on to workers in other banks in the city, making the young intern a laughing stock.

Now the success of the email has snowballed and it has been sent across the world.

"It has gone not only to everyone in Citi, but I've just been told by my boss it has gone all over the banks and they're all laughing about it," said one of Miss Gao's co-workers.

Another, who appears to be from Citigroup's Human Resources department said: "Maybe we need to revisit the intern selection criteria, I think the emphasis on control may be too high!"

A recipient writes: "It is hilarious, did you have a PA who would 'kindly deal with your queries between 8.30pm to 10pm' when you were an intern aged 21?"

One colleague responded to the 21-year-old's 'STRICT DRESS CODE', which reads: "It goes without saying that the more upper-class you dress, the less likely you shall be denied entry."

He said: "It also goes without saying that the more I read of that, the less likely I am to contain my mirth."

Forwarding the email on, one person comments: "Citi must be paying their interns too much."

Another puts it down to the keen intern's desire to make a good impression. He said: "Somebody is trying a little too hard."

Yesterday a message, claiming to be an apology from Miss Gao, was posted on an Oxford University gossip website.

She wrote that the email was meant to be a joke between friends, but that things were now "seriously getting out of control".

"I am sorry if you found the content of the invitation details offensive and I am glad to entertain," she said.

"But please stop now because it is getting really unprofessional and unnecessary, and a lot of you know me anyway and have heard about this so I apologise for repeating this again, but hopefully for the final time."

WTF, I wasn't invited to this. Bitch! :angry:

WTF' date=' I wasn't invited to this. Bitch! :angry:[/quote']

 

You're about the only one who WASN'T, it seems!!:P

Funny, my emails sound exactly the same!!! :thinking:

 

 

 

haha

LMAO Do you have the actual email? I'd love to read it. :P

She should know better than to divulge the work email system!! :lol:

Its not that funny