Dozens of federal public servants were told by their bosses that their jobs would be axed in a heartless April Fools' Day prank in Canberra.

The workers arrived at their desks at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on April 1 to be confronted with an "announcement" on a big TV screen that their workplace was being broken up and moved to Melbourne.

The hoax ''announcement'' at the Canberra DFAT office on April 1, 2015 telling public servants their jobs were to be sent interstate.

The message told more than 30 low-ranking public servants at the Australian Passport Office, many of whom are on temporary contracts, they must submit expressions of interest if they wanted to keep their jobs by moving interstate.