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4 Tips For Workplace Pranks

Dave Follett on March 19, 2019

Any workplace can get stale, boring or in a rut. I think software development can be particularly susceptible because the high level of concentrati...
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James Turner

Where I worked we had a fairly relaxed atmosphere and I did prank a bunch of people. From moving tables around in the office (including my boss's), moving a colleague's desk into the bathroom (fully wired up), to setting up a fake crime scene or even turning a desk into a Japanese shrine.

I also had some good pranks done to me, one time I came to work to find my desk tricked out like a car simulator with HUD, steering wheel, gear shifter etc and my chair replaced with a broken down exercise bike. Another time, I find a Christmas tree and decorations all over my desk.

Good times!

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Sergey Aleksashov

Some ideas for you folks that I personally used:

  • Screenshot of the desktop as desktop background + hide icons;
  • Sublime text with "sound" plugin, for every action (ex. save) create 10 empty sound files and one with a whispering sound (you can save it from a whatsapp voice message), this way randomly 1 out of 10 the user of sublime text will hear a sound but won't understand;
  • Middle finger on the link cursor;
  • A piece of post-it or tape under the mouse covering the laser;
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Brandon Lyons

Googly Eyes are great!

Googly Eyes are great!

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Dave Follett

🌡 βž• πŸ‘€ Awesome! Thanks for sharing.

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C.S. Rhymes

I once plugged another keyboard in to someone’s computer and started typing. They thought their computer was possessed.

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Joe Zack • Edited

Love the googly eyes!

(googly eyes ordered, I'm in!)

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Dave Follett

Please share some pictures!

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Robin Kretzschmar

The googly eyes are hilarious! This made me laugh loud in the office! πŸ˜‚
Next break is dedicated to shop for googly eyes... πŸ˜‰

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Ruby Palmer

You can use synthetic urine to play workplace pranks, but you have to be sure that you can sneak it into a place undetected. You can use a waist pouch, Incognito Belt, or small IV bag. In addition, you have to make sure that the urine is warm before you hand it in. To be safe, you should never perform an unsupervised urine test without checking to ensure it is the correct temperature.

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Rachel Soderberg

I like to open Notepad and write the person a note. Not really a prank, but it generally gets a funny response or an "awwww!" if I write something nice.

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Jason R Tibbetts

So you'd recommend against stretching plastic wrap across the toilet bowl and putting the seat back down?

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Dave Follett

Yeah, that's probably not a good idea ... at least in the workplace.