The incident began with a few ill-chosen words by a clerical worker unhappy with her new seating arrangements and it escalated into a significant racial incident that damaged the reputation of her employer, London-listed insurer Old Mutual, in its biggest country of operation. The affair featured relentless negative media coverage for more than a week and a threat by trade unionists to picket the company's Cape Town head office. It ended with a public apology by Old Mutual, which says it has radically overhauled its procedures for handling racial incidents.