‘I no longer have a job but I do have a PS5’: Woman says she was fired over a white elephant gift exchange

Office environments can often be tense or complicated, especially around the holidays. But the repercussions of one woman's white elephant gift exchange—in which she successfully snagged a PlayStation 5 and got fired for it—took bad workplace behavior to new heights.

On Dec. 20, 2024, content creator Louisa Melcher shared a video on her Instagram and TikTok accounts. The video begins, "I just got fired from my job over a white elephant gift exchange; I'm actually in shock right now."

Melcher explains that at her holiday party, the office held a white elephant gift exchange with strict rules: a thirty-dollar spending limit on gifts, and a three-steal limit. Surprising the whole office, HR brought a PlayStation 5 to the exchange, breaking the spending limit rule. Since everybody wanted the PlayStation, they allowed it to be admitted into the White Elephant.

The first person took the PS5, then the second person in the exchange stole it. Melcher's boss' boss (an executive vice president) went next, and stole the PS5, seemingly unaware that a third person could steal the gift. "He's sitting there saying, oh, my daughter's going to love this, and I'm sitting there thinking, you do know you're the second steal, right?"

@loulouorange I need the legal side of TikTok to help me get my bag bc there’s ZERO WAY this is fair #whiteelephant #whiteelephantgift #office #job #laidoff #fired #unemployed #boss ♬ original sound - Louisa Melcher

As the exchange continued, nobody else stole the PlayStation. "I'm like, really? You're that desperate to please this guy? It's a game," Melcher says.

When it got to Melcher, she used the third steal to take the PS5, telling her followers "Guess what? I'm going to resell this. I don't make 700K base salary." The VP didn't appreciate this, and said to Melcher, "Wow, you're literally stealing from a child." Melcher thought the man was just being a sore loser, but she claims that she got fired.

"Now do I think it makes sense that I'm the only person being laid off? That I'm being laid off when my team exceeded performance metrics this quarter and that I just got a four out of five performance review last week? No, it doesn't make sense. So now I no longer have a job but I do have a PS5."

Social media reacts

The post garnered over 350,000 likes on Instagram and 6.3 million views on TikTok. Across both platforms, users were shocked and angry by the outcome of the gift exchange.

Users—many with roles in corporate America—came out of the woodwork to offer encouragement, solidarity, and specific legal advice on how to capitalize on her alleged wrongful termination.

Is the video real?

While garnering some very real and concerned reactions online, based on Melcher's track record for posting bits, other users call in to question the video's authenticity. One user said, "JUST SO EVERYONE KNOWS, Louisa Melcher's known on all the socials for telling bullsh*t stories for clout." Another says, "I get the vibe this isn't real?" while still another says, "She posts bits all the time and you people fall for it every time, you cannot be real people."

Melcher, a recent Columbia University graduate, began making humorous and self-deprecating content in 2020 after a song she released online was criticized on the internet.

Since then, her online identity has toed the line between authentic and calculated cringe, sharing content and stories that viewers could interpret as real, but because of their specificity, shock value, and sheer volume, many believe are untrue.

@saronthings #stitch with @Louisa Melcher please make it make sense. #louisamelcher’s stories are beyond believeable… so i dont believe them. #influencersinthewild #storytime #grammys ♬ original sound - saron

Melcher has not commented on her own content's authenticity, but the controversies around her posts generate absurd, cringe, and captivating online debates that many users find highly entertaining.

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