Workplace Pranks: The Good, The Bad, and The Hilarious

With April Fools Day just around the corner and our pandemic-suffering world in desperate need of a comic diversion, I think this is a good time to share a few of my best and worst workplace pranks.

Starting as a teenager, I’ve had a 40+ year career working mainly in big city offices — San Diego, Boston, Toronto, and Silicon Valley. Below are some of the most memorable pranks I pulled. Perhaps they will inspire you on April 1 to have some good clean fun without going over they line.

The ole not-so-dirty dish trick
My first part-time job was working as a gofer for my uncle who was a no-nonsense handyman. There was no pranking with him. But my second part-time job was working as a dishwasher at a steak-and-seafood restaurant in Escondido, California called The Country Gentleman. When I got promoted to busboy, I would occasionally pull a prank on the new dishwashers by sneaking clean dishes they’d just washed back into the dirty bus tubs.

Usually, it would take a couple of rounds before the victim(s) caught on and said, “Hey, what the…?!” This was followed by a good round of laughter by everyone in the kitchen. Note: this prank would only be done on weekday nights, not on a busy Friday or Saturday evening. That just wouldn’t be cool.

I actually used this prank at home when my siblings and I used to have to take turns washing, drying, and putting away the dinner dishes. When I was the putting-away-person, I would often…