A Wind-Up (or two) at Work

I’m very childish and a big prankster. So when “April Fool’s Day “rolls around, I find it to be the perfect excuse to go all loony and play as many jokes on people as I can. I must confess that this skill is an inherited one. You see I lived through years of my mum narrating all the shenanigans she pulled at work. And so, in some ways I am a product of my mother’s rearing.

This year, I decided that it was about time to cause a bit of mischief at work. Of course I take my job seriously and had to ensure that I did not offend anyone. The thing with office pranks is that they have got to be done in a non-threatening inoffensive manner. A minor error could be serious and the joke could be misconstrued as being offensive and in poor taste.

Having thought it through carefully, I chose my victims accordingly. My day began by swapping my poor unsuspecting boss’ cabinet with my own. I don’t think he was all that amused (as he was having a bad enough day) but he’s a tolerant sort of man (thankfully).

My next trick was telling one of the Group Leaders that he had a phone message from a “Mr Lyons”. I provided a number to go with the name. Well, thinking it was a new business opportunity, he dialled the number promptly, and much to his surprise (and my amusement) the number I provided was the automated number for the local zoo. Fortunately yet again he was such a good sport about it. And I rewarded him with a chocolate.

Of course, if you are planning on playing tricks. You need to be a good sport and prepared to have one played on you. And I did. My IT Manager came to review a problem I was having with an application. Apart from fixing it, he left me with a 180 degree rotated view of my desktop items. So my start menu was on the top right hand corner and upside down as were all other icons on my desktop, making it impossible to read.

I’d say it’s the perfect way to celebrate a day to amuse and be amused.

Comments

Anonymous said…
zqxaajWell well well.....It doesn't
harm to play a few pranks which
dont offend and which afford a
good laugh.Like mother, like
daughter.
April 01, 2008 10:29 am
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