March 31, 2011

April Fool's Day pranks at the office: Yea or nay?

• 1 Comment |
• E-mail |
• Print
• • Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Like March Madness office pools, there will always be killjoys vehemently opposed to having a little innocent fun in the workplace on April 1.

[Photo by sandman_kk]

A few days ago, one labor attorney issued this warning by way of emailed press release:

A good rule of thumb is to avoid any comments or conduct at work that you would not be comfortable saying or doing in church or court. And I can tell you from experience that some jokes are a whole lot less funny when told in federal court.

For those who don't work in a place of worship or court of law, this might sound overly rigid. Having only worked in casual, creative offices populated by quirky, fun-loving colleagues, it certainly does to me. In fact, I'm a firm believer that a well-executed, workplace-appropriate April Fool's day prank can help colleagues bond and make the workday a bit more enjoyable (kind of like those March Madness office pools).

Of course, the usual HR warnings apply: Be careful not to offend anyone, hamper productivity, violate the employee handbook, cross the line of human decency, or engage in sexual harassment, racial discrimination, or anything else that could get you or your company into legal hot water.

To that I will add a few April Fool's Day warnings of my own:

Choose your audience wisely. If your cubiclemate hasn't had a sense of humor for the past six months, she certainly isn't going to find her funny bone on April 1.

Abide by company technology rules. Some companies take swiping a colleague's password or hacking into their email verrrrry seriously.

Leave clients out of it. Save your pranks for the coworkers you're more familiar with, and don't do anything to embarrass your company in front of its customers.

Remember, the internet is forever. Think carefully before taking your prank online. Photos, jokes, and snarky comments posted on social media sites could come back to haunt you for a long time if one of your prankees takes them the wrong way.

Kill them with laughter. If you're going to put your rear on the line by playing an office prank, you've got to make it memorable -- in a good way. The more you get your colleagues chuckling and impress them with your ingenuity, the less likely they'll be to take you task. (Getting even with you, however, is another story.)

Now that we've gotten the caveats out of the way, I'd like to give you the opportunity to share the best April Fool's Day prank you ever pulled, fell for, or witnessed at the office. Leave all the sordid details in the comments below. I'll start by offering a beloved tale a colleague shared with me this week:

I set autocorrect on a coworker's computer to change "mother" to "mommy." It took him six months to realize he wasn't having Freudian issues (he happened to be looking at the screen when the word changed). In the meantime, he'd sent many emails that way (mostly personal), including one to his mother, who responded and told him how cute it was that he called her Mommy.

Michelle Goodman is the author of "My So-Called Freelance Life" and "The Anti 9-to-5 Guide." E-mail Michelle at mgoodman@nwjobs.com

• 1 Comment |
• E-mail |
• Print
• • Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Read more
etiquette, productivity, work/life balance

1 Comment

| Leave a comment

4ndyman | April 1, 2011 11:55 AM | Reply

I used to share a computer with someone who worked on the night shift. At the end of the day, a created a fake pop-up that said "Are you sure you want to format C:?" and that offered only an OK button. I put that in the middle of the screen. Then I closed or hid all the other programs and took a screen shot. Then I made that screen shot the desktop wallpaper.

When my coworker got there that evening, he was faced with a dialog box asking him if he wanted to do something he definitely DIDN'T want to do, and he couldn't click the dialog box one way or the other.

I found out the next day that he ended up calling IT! Luckily, the woman who arrived was good-natured. She thought it was hilarious.

When I arrived this morning, I found that someone had put a piece of scotch tape over the sensor on my optical mouse, rendering it useless. It was just a little prank, but it earned a chuckle and started the day off well.

Leave a comment

Name

Email Address

URL

Remember personal info?

Comments