You don’t hear about office pranks much these days.
There used to be a bit of fun having a clever office prank. What’s happened?
Probably because the fun was one way and office pranks typically have a victim. (They’re described as hapless.)
It’s a danger zone. The office prank can be the most harmless prank but impact the most unexpected victim.
Even those who are fooled by the prank, seem to feel like a victim.
I’ve learnt to tread carefully.
We’ve had some classic pranks in the office:
– sending out an official comms to everyone about an office refurbishment which required everyone to relocate to our warehouse (many kilometres away) for around 3 months. A shuttle bus will be provided. All Team Members were asked to book their seat on the bus.
– pretending that all fabric office chairs were being steam cleaned and infused with a fragrance. Team Members were asked to nominate their preferred fragrance and to bring plastic coverings for the chairs while they were drying out.
– circulating an advertisement for a crosswalk attendant, to assist Team Members crossing the access road between the staff car park and the office. The successful applicant needed to be quite fit as they had to monitor two crosswalks simultaneously, about 50 metres apart.
– providing all team members with options to purchase Return To Work equipment, such as a cone of silence, blinkers to limit distractions and personal flags to fly at their workstation to show their interruption status.
– setting up an elaborate blind date with a fictitious prospect.
Anyone got any other ideas that might work?