Can Eating a Coworker Finally Make the Workday Interesting?

A routine day at an aquarium was disrupted when one employee placed a smaller employee beneath its body and consumed the employee during working hours.

Management has not announced disciplinary action.

The video, posted to RedNote under the title “Work Is Tasteless, but My Coworker Is Golden and Crispy,” showed a ray trapping and eating a smaller fish. Viewers immediately abandoned marine biology and began conducting a workplace review.

More than 13,000 people liked the footage. Nearly 5,000 shared it, possibly with colleagues whose flavor profile they had recently considered.

The employee meal policy lacked clarity

The smaller fish appeared to have joined the organization under the impression that meals would be provided.

“I took this job because they promised an employee meal,” one commenter wrote from the fish’s perspective. “Did they mean I was the meal?”

This ambiguity is common in job listings. Employers advertise meals, growth opportunities and a dynamic environment without specifying whether growth will occur inside a larger coworker.

The ray appeared experienced. It maneuvered the fish against the aquarium glass, covered it and ate with enough discretion to suggest this was not its first internal restructuring.

One user wondered how the animal would hunt in the ocean without a glass wall. Another proposed pressing prey against the sand. The discussion therefore supplied both an ethics committee and operational consulting.

Workers express interest in the benefit

The second-most-popular comment stated: “If only we could eat the coworkers we dislike.”

A reply diagnosed the arrival of a Hannibal Lecter personality, but the broader thread continued evaluating the idea. Users described coworkers as crispy, melt-in-the-mouth and suitable for afternoon tea. One objected that disliked colleagues might taste bitter and sour.

The proposal’s popularity should not be mistaken for a literal change in Chinese employment law. It is better understood as a performance review written from the bottom of the food chain.

Workplace language already describes companies as consuming people, teams as competing for resources and employees as replaceable. The aquarium merely removed the metaphor.

Human resources confirms the vacancy is open

Commenters asked what to do after a coworker had been eaten. The recommended procedure was simple: post a new vacancy on Boss Zhipin, a Chinese recruitment platform.

No mourning period was proposed.

Accounting questions followed. If an employee disappears during inventory, should the company report a loss? A reply clarified that golden, crispy coworkers are consumables and should not be entered as assets.

Another commenter asked whether the incident qualified as a workplace injury. A reply promoted the deceased directly to martyr status.

In a single thread, the fish received recruitment processing, accounting treatment and ceremonial recognition. This was more administration than many employees receive while alive.

The aquarium sells the incident as merchandise

The video’s strangest detail may have been a toy reportedly sold at the aquarium depicting the same feeding behavior. Commenters initially assumed the scene had become a joke online. The existence of merchandise suggested it was already part of the institution’s brand.

“Then it is realism,” one user concluded.

That sentence captured why the clip traveled so well. The ray was not malicious. It was doing what rays do. The smaller fish had not violated policy. It occupied the same environment at the wrong level of the hierarchy.

The workday remained tasteless. The coworker did not.