Getting laid off is basically never fun, so being able to take it with some humor is a special skill. A good, old-fashioned prank might be the best solution since you get to leave that little bit of payback before you walk out the doors for the last time. Depending on just how well or poorly you want them to remember you, one can always scale a prank up or down.

This is exactly what TikToker the.marchie did after she lost her job. She laid the groundwork with some sticky notes, hidden throughout the office then waited for the chaos to begin. She recorded her coworker’s reactions in a TokTok that went viral
More info: TikTok

Office pranks can range from disruptive to downright hilarious

Image credits: @the.marchie

One woman ended up going viral after sharing her ingenious prank using sticky notes

Image credits: @the.marchie

Image credits: @the.marchie

Image credits: @the.marchie

You can watch the full TikTok here

@the.marchie Gone but NEVER forgotten #pranks #layoffseason ♬ Monsters, Inc – Gustav Lundgren & Unit

Practical jokes are a great way to show off creativity and skill

Image credits: Matthew Dillon (not the actual photo)

A good prank combines a solid understanding of humor with some practical skills. The sticky notes are perfect since they are low effort, yet easy to deploy all over the office. The use of false numbering is a stroke of genius, forcing the residents of the office to forever wonder if they truly got them all, at least until they see the TikTok embedded above. In the past, it’s been used to good effect, when people let greased pigs lose in, say, a university or school. They would be labeled one, two, and four, inevitably causing whoever was unfortunate to be sent to catch them endless trouble as they searched, desperately, for the non-existent pig.

Schools and universities weren’t mentioned randomly, these are pretty common places for pranks worldwide. In some cases, the outcomes are near-legendary. For example, the Hacks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where some of the most brilliant technical minds in the country put their skills to use by, say, placing a fire truck on top of the Great Dome that sits on the MIT campus. In fact, placing things on the Great Dome seems like a tradition at this point, which slightly ruins the surprise, as students have also placed everything from Olympic medals to a lunar rover. MIT students may be particularly well equipped, as their institution has a longstanding, ongoing prank war with the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). This would go as far as students from both institutions visiting each other’s schools for the express purpose of causing havoc.

Pranking is one way to vent frustration in the workplace

Image credits:  RDNE Stock project  (not the actual photo)

A select number of pranks involved sneaking anti-MIT shirts into an event for prospective freshmen (with “because not everybody can go to Caltech” printed on the back) to MIT students stealing a 1.7-ton, 130-year-old Fleming cannon and transporting it across the country. A rivalry is a good enough reason for an ever-escalating war, as long as it’s all in good fun. As far as targets go, a workplace that fired you seems completely reasonable. In fact, a relatively good-natured prank seems preferable to, say, going postal. Often used tongue-in-cheek, this term is actually used to signify legitimate violence done as revenge for a slight, real or perceived, done by a coworker or manager. Fortunately, as far as shootings go, these are uncommon, and the US only experiences about two a year.

Indeed, her prank seemed well-planned enough to perhaps be in the making before the news of termination broke. But overall, it’s a healthy response to what had to be frustrating news at the end of the day. Other people can and have done a lot worse, including actual sabotage of the company and downright criminal behavior. Ultimately, employee retaliation is less common if, for example, the termination is seen as a result of outside interference, the economy, poor sales, etc. People understand justice and can wrap their heads around a bad situation. But managers that are cruel, petty and unfair will have to deal with diminishing productivity, a hostile workforce, and the risk of someone truly going postal.

Commenters loved her plan and expressed their admiration

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