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Top 10 April Fools' Pranks to Play at Work
Careerbuilder.com ^ | March 31, 2006 | By Kate Lorenz, CareerBuilder.com Editor

Posted on 03/31/2006 10:17:18 AM PST by Nachum

Time to dust off the whoopee cushions and hand buzzers. April Fools' Day is here and there's no better place for wisecracks and shenanigans than at work.

In its annual April Fools' Day survey, CareerBuilder.com found 33 percent of workers have played a practical joke on a co-worker and 17 percent are planning office tricks for this year's holiday.

Although it might be thrilling to finally one-up the office funnyman, pranks also help beat something that's no laughing matter: workplace stress.

More than half of workers reported working under stress in another CareerBuilder.com survey. Stress and worry on the job can be harmful, causing problems that damage your health and performance. Having fun with co-workers can provide stress relief, build rapport, make work more enjoyable and possibly improve productivity.

If you want to commit an act of April Foolery at work and need some inspiration, here are the top 10 work gags from CareerBuilder.com's survey:

1. Changed the caller ID on a co-worker's phone to read "Mr. Kitten" every time he called someone.

2. Placed random objects from people's desks in the vending machine.

3. Placed a live goldfish in an IV bag in a clinic.

4. Snuck onto someone else's computer and sent out an "I love you" e-mail to the entire office.

5. Wall papered someone's entire cube with headshots of his co-workers.

6. Convinced a colleague that a co-worker was in love with him.

7. Sat on the copier and placed the copies back in the paper bin. Anytime co-workers made copies, they had the image of the prankster's backside in the background.

8. Turned all the clocks in the office one hour back to make the work day seem longer.

9. Locked all the doors, shut off the lights and put a "Closed" sign in the window when the boss went out for lunch.

10. Placed fake rubber chocolates in the break room and watched as co-workers tried to chew them.

Kate Lorenz is the article and advice editor for CareerBuilder.com. She researches and writes about job search strategy, career management, hiring trends and workplace issues.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous
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To: YouPosting2Me
(barley showing).

I prefer barley in soup. lol

21 posted on 03/31/2006 10:33:14 AM PST by notpoliticallycorewrecked (God bless our military)
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To: YouPosting2Me

I'll let you know how I make out. Thanks... LOL. This might just be perfect.


22 posted on 03/31/2006 10:33:56 AM PST by b4its2late (There are good terrorists.............. DEAD ONES.)
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To: Nachum

SEARCH IS YOUR FRIEND ... ALL READY POSTED HERE!



http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1606931/posts


23 posted on 03/31/2006 10:34:36 AM PST by maggief (and the dessert cart rolls on ...)
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To: Nachum
I still enjoy moving the keys around on my bosses keyboard. He's a "hunt and peck" kinda guy, so typing is not his strong point.

It's a hoot when he tries to do an email and can't type anything coherant on it!

By mid-day, he'll have desktop support trying to fix it.

24 posted on 03/31/2006 10:35:21 AM PST by paulcissa (Only YOU can prevent liberalism.)
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To: maggief

Nice try :)


25 posted on 03/31/2006 10:35:41 AM PST by Ingtar (Understanding is a three-edged sword : your side, my side, and the truth in between ." -- Kosh)
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To: maggief
Well done!

(Yeah, I fell for it.)

26 posted on 03/31/2006 10:36:17 AM PST by LikeLight
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To: Nachum

A "practical joker" deserves applause for his wit according to its quality. Bastinado is about right. For exceptional wit one might grant keelhauling. But staking him out on an anthill should be reserved for the very wittiest.

Lazarus Long


27 posted on 03/31/2006 10:38:28 AM PST by HuntsvilleTxVeteran ("Remember the Alamo, Goliad and WACO")
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To: Nachum

A friend bought a brand new Geo. We had to listen every day to his MPG report. Always, 40, 42, 41 MPG.

So, we started adding gas to his tank, a little at a time. the geo started getting 50 then 55 then 60 MPG.

We kept adding gas to the tank, it got up to 75, then 85 then 90 MPG.

We decided to wean him off the gas, so we added less and less. it dropped to 75, then 65 then 60.

Even less gas added, and it dropped to 45 then we quit adding gas.

Of course, we couldnt quit, we started syphoning. When it hit 25, he took it in for a tune up.


28 posted on 03/31/2006 10:38:30 AM PST by Lokibob (Spelling and typos are copyrighted. Please do not use.)
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To: Nachum

Mechanical Mouse: Remove the mouse ball, stick in a loop of tape, and replace the ball.

Optical Mouse: Short strip of opaque tape to block led's.


29 posted on 03/31/2006 10:38:39 AM PST by mlstier ("The Right to Privacy does not trump the Right to Life" -- Bill O'Reilly)
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To: kx9088

I did that but when ever the "victim" would type the word "The" it would change it to "f*ck"


30 posted on 03/31/2006 10:41:43 AM PST by Holicheese (Hey whitey, wheres your hat?)
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To: Nachum

Ok...here's one.

One Saturday the company president's wife (also an employee) wound up locked in the ladies room (lock malfunction) for several hours until her husband got back from an errand. Since her husband couldn't keep his mouth shut the story became the talk of the entire company.

A couple of weeks later I hung a prybar on the door knob inside the ladies room with a sign "For emergency use only!" attached.

When the victim went into the ladies room she started shreiking with laughter.

She never figured out who did it.


31 posted on 03/31/2006 10:42:49 AM PST by 6ppc
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To: YouPosting2Me

That's a good one! I think I'll try it.


32 posted on 03/31/2006 10:43:43 AM PST by 6ppc
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To: mlstier
Mechanical Mouse: Remove the mouse ball, stick in a loop of tape, and replace the ball.

Better yet, just place a small piece of tape over just one of the little wheels inside the ball compartment. End result, mose works fine, jst won't go "left"...

33 posted on 03/31/2006 10:44:06 AM PST by cspackler (There are 10 kinds of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.)
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To: Nachum
Here's my best one to date:

About 15 years ago my company got a new phone system at the main office. We went from 3 lines to 17 lines and received fancy new desk phones. For ten days after everyone in the company received a daily memo from the communications company detailing some new feature the phone and service offered.

The day before April Fools Day I took the phone company letter head and made up a bogus memo that read:

TO: All XYX Company Business Phone Users

From: Joe Blow, Systems Engineer (name changed to protect the guilty)

Please be advised that on 4/1/91 we will be cleaning the business phone lines at your location.

High pressure air will be injected into the fiber optic cables to purge the system of accumulated dust and debris.

We recommend wrapping your phone’s handset in a plastic bag to prevent the expelled dust and debris from settling into your phone’s key punch pad.

The cleaning will begin promptly at 10:00 am and last for approximately 30 seconds.

Please take the necessary precautions to minimize any inconvenience of this required service.

I took three (read, 3) of these memos and put them on the desk of the people who I figured would fall for this, along with a nice waste basket size white plastic bag.

The next morning, April Fools Day, at about 9:30 one of these three people starts to make it her business to find out who in our office does not have a bag for their phone. She starts a panic about some type of phone company test, where “they’re going to blow out the lines!”. Shes running around telling everyone they had better cover up their handset.

At about 9:50am I started walking through the building and EVERYONE had their phone wrapped in plastic. There were people talking with a bag wrapped around the hand set…overhead one saying in a loud voice..”Its some kind of test, they’re blowing out the lines” to the person she was talking to. I’m starting to feel like a kid who through a baseball through his dad’s car windshield and dad is going to find out real soon who did it.

A couple of minutes before 10:00 I go up to the reception area to make a system wide page announcing “April Fools!”. At 10:00 the phones are ringing but no one is answering. I’m holding the phone in my hand to make the page and the company President walks by and says, “PUT THE PHONE DOWN, YOU’RE GOING TO GET SPRAYED IN THE FACE!” By this time I’m laughing so hard I can hardly speak.

I make my announcement “Attention all of you with a bag on your phone, April Fools.” There was Dead Silence. Not a sound. Then I hear murmers and “I’m gonna kill him”, “He’s gonna get it”, etc.

Final count 27 phones bagged. I went and worked in a branch office at a neighboring city for two weeks before going back into the main office. Its been 10 years and I still get grief for that prank.

Two Lessons learned: #1. Panic spreads like wildfire. If people are not given time to logically consider the facts of a situation, they will become like cattle and follow the stampeding herd. #2. Never make the president of your company look like a fool.

34 posted on 03/31/2006 10:45:25 AM PST by Rebelbase (Bush signed CFR. He deserves to be bitched at as much as McCain.)
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To: cspackler

That would be absolutely infuriating.


35 posted on 03/31/2006 10:45:49 AM PST by Archangel86
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To: Red Badger

Agreed. No work this year.


36 posted on 03/31/2006 10:47:09 AM PST by napscoordinator
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To: Nachum
My boss once walked into my office on March 31st and said "take tomorrow off." I told him I didn't want to. He said, "take tomorrow off." I am a tyrant on April 1st.
37 posted on 03/31/2006 10:48:55 AM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: Nachum
A co-worker called me one night and told me he would not be in the office in Minneapolis until late the next day as he was stuck in LA.

The next day I started a rumor he had taken the morning off to get a vasectomy.

It was two weeks before he finally had enough of the ladies in the office staring at him and making vasectomy jokes and sexual innuendoes that he finally asked what in the world was going on.

38 posted on 03/31/2006 10:51:21 AM PST by N. Theknow (Kennedys - Can't drive, can't fly, can't ski, can't skipper a boat - But they know what's best.)
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To: Nachum
Take end of the curly-cord on the phone handset, disconnect it from the receiver and tape it to the back/bottom of the receiver. It looks like it's connected, but they can't answer the phone when it's ringing. There's also some neat downloadable computer jokes for April Fools: "Mash Here"
39 posted on 03/31/2006 10:52:44 AM PST by BreitbartSentMe (Ex-Dem since 2001 *Folding@Home for the Gipper - Join the FReeper Folders*)
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To: Rebelbase

OMG!! I just told that one to my bosses in the other room and they're cracking up!!


40 posted on 03/31/2006 10:52:56 AM PST by RandallFlagg (Roll your own cigarettes! You'll save $$$ and smoke less!(Magnetic bumper stickers-click my name)
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