Want to have some fun? Lay someone off.

Got some extra time on your hands due to recent downsizing? Like to take risks at work that you’ll be the next one canned by playing video games online? Or maybe you’re just looking for something new to do to while away the hours while you wait for that first unemployment check to roll in. Whatever the case, I’ve got the perfect pass-time for you. It’s called “Layoff” and, yes, it’s a new online video game that was just released.

Folks, I think we’ve officially reached an all time low as far as cashing in on the grim economy goes. But, hey, I’m not surprised by anything I see lately, so here goes. Apparently the premise of the game is that you, playing the role of manager, face a row of random workers (ranging anywhere from mechanics to store clerks to bank tellers) which you switch around in an attempt to get three or more “similar” workers, otherwise known as “improving efficiency”. (Surely that term is all too familiar to many of you.)

Once you get a comparable group, it’s buh-bye, gonzo, caput, don’t-let-the-door-hit-you-in-the-ass-on-the-way-out. It’s off to the bottom of the screen for them, where the unemployment office is conveniently located. There the down on their luckers wander around mingling, muttering and even taking smoke breaks.

As the downsizing continues, a counter in the top corner of the screen tallies how much money you’re saving by crushing the lives of hard working individuals. Now if that’s not a feel-good experience, I’m not sure what is.

It’s sort of like tic tac toe, and sadly, probably similar to the actual reasoning behind many of the job cuts that firms across the country have recently taken part in. (Either that or pin the tail on the jackass.) According to the description on the game site, “Layoff” is “part dark humor, part grim portent, in the game players play from the side of management needing to cut jobs, and match types of workers in groups in order to lay the workers off and increase workforce efficiency”.

Hey, what the hell, give it a shot. Maybe it’s cathartic.