Saturday, February 21, 2009

Fire Drill

In a large multinational company..............

A fire alarm rang at 4pm in a large office when almost all employees were in office (approx 5,000). As usual the entire office was evacuated within 3 minutes and all employees gathered outside the office in the designated area waiting for further announcement.

The Security Officer in charge made the following announcement: "Dear employees - with sincere regret I have been asked to announce that for many of you it will be your last evacuation drill. Due to the recession the company is laying off almost 50% of its employees. So when this announcement finishes, I ask all of you to move back into the building and if your swipe card does not work then it means you have been laid off in which case you will not be allowed inside and all your belongings will be couriered to you by tomorrow.

The Company has used this innovative approach as we didn't want to fill up the email box with lay-off mails and good bye mails in thousands and also to avoid any fight inside the office and the consequent security issue for all staff.

Hope you have had a rewarding career with us and all the best ahead.

Please move back in and try your luck".