A Bengaluru software engineer has gone viral on X after posting a satirical “I GOT FIRED” button that he said could trigger chaos inside a company’s systems with one click.
The post was shared by Pankaj Tanwar, who described the device as a joke tied to growing anxiety over AI-driven layoffs in the tech industry. According to the post, the button would allegedly make a company’s codebase public, push .env secrets to a public repository, drop a staging database and notify his lawyer.
Images shared with the post showed a custom-built multi-button setup connected to a laptop, with other labels including “Gaslight Them” and “Decode Corporate BS”. The software prompts and screenshots made the setup appear realistic, but the coverage described it as satire rather than a functional threat.
The post drew attention online because it tapped into broader fears about layoffs, burnout and job security in the tech sector. Reactions ranged from amusement to criticism, reflecting the uneasy mix of humor and anxiety around workplace automation.
ai layoffs are getting out of hands so I built “I GOT FIRED” button 🚨
one click, and it makes entire company codebase public, pushes .env secrets to public repo, drops staging db and finally notifies my lawyer 🙂
I hope I never need it but it’s ready 👍🏻 pic.twitter.com/ThDhM5ataM
— Pankaj (@the2ndfloorguy) May 20, 2026
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