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 sneak a newly cleaned and dried plate back into the soapy water sink for the washer to do again. It was always fun to see how long it took before the washer and the dryer caught on. Is it any wonder I was voted Least Popular Brother 12 years in a row?

Pranks are a sign of immaturity — Duh!
I know it was immature behavior, but I was just a teenager. And let’s just get this out there now, pranks are by definition done by immature people like I was — and still am on occasion.

Pranks can fall into three categories: good, bad, and hilarious:

• A good prank is when no one gets hurt, you get a chuckle, and the victim doesn’t cry.
• A bad prank is when something goes awry, the victim gets hurt or angry, and you get severely reprimanded or fired.
• A hilarious prank is the ultra-rare one when everybody — perp, vic, eye-witnesses, and innocent…