THIS IS TRUE AND TOOK PLACE IN SINGAPORE

A fire alarm, in a large office building, rang at 4 p.m. when almost all of the company's 500 employees were at work.
As usual in such circumstances the entire office was evacuated within 3 mins & every employee gathered outside.

Nothing happened for ten minutes or so and there was no evidence of a fire.

Then the firms Security Officer made an announcement ...

"Dear employees, with melting heart I am making this announcement that for many of you will be your last fire evacuation drill. Due to the recession the company are laying off almost fifty percent of staff. When you move back into the building some of you will discover that your swipe passcard will no longer give you access to the office. If you are among those laid off, go home and all your belongings will be couriered to you tomorrow. The management took this approach to save on overloading the email system with layoff notifications and goodbye messages and also to avoid any violent outbursts inside the office. Hope you have a nice career ahead ... please move forward and try your swipe card."