Absolutely true store: I once knew a professional hatchet man (a person spineless companies hire to fire large numbers of employees -- usually to fire an entire building of people). He told me once that he was part of a team that had to fire everyone working at an office building that held two-to-three hundred people from the looks of it. They were doing a lot of secretive work, so it was important that both everyone find out at the same time and security guards must escort them to their desks -- both measures to prevent anyone stealing documents or information of any kind.

So here's what they did: They pulled one of the fire alarms. Everyone, thinking it was a fire or drill, exited the building. Then this man, from inside the building, put a bullhorn to his mouth and said "Attention! This is not a drill! You're all fired!" (thinking, of course, that it was a clever play on words). They then let people back in one by one to collect their personal items and that was that.