Poll Time: Work Pranks!

When I worked in customer support I liked to change the phone queue login button for people to the Callin' Oates hotline. They would be so confused when it started asking them what song they wanted to listen to.

Sean Craig

We got a few sniffing pi's (raspberry pi's for rf protocol testing/programming, like a pineapple) and if you screw the antennas a little bit open... these software developers gonna search hours for bugs in their software 😈

Having seen too many pranks that were intended to be harmless but ended up damaging relationships, I don't prank people.

Me and my friend used to do computer pranks on each other if we left our computers unlocked. Good times.

Also, rather than gift wrap or aluminium foil or plastic wrap, covering their desk and all related surfaces with sticky notes, and then setting the webcam on my workstation to record their reaction when they walk in the next morning.

Tony M

Changing the "READY" message on the office printer to read "INSERT COIN" instead.

Tony M

Airhorn or Silly String under an adjustable chair is always a classic. Speaker wire is cheap. So are small batteries. And small pushbuttons. And very loud alarms. Those can easily be hidden in ceiling tiles or under a desk, with the pushbutton at your desk. Black shoe polish on the earpiece of a black phone is hateful, but effective. Hiding a clock radio tuned to the most obnoxious possible radio station and scheduling it to go off in the middle of the morning is always fun. For offices that have inside facing doors or windows, clever use of cardboard boxes mounted to the back of the windows and some packing peanuts can make one think their *entire office * is filled with packing peanuts. Allegedly :)

A co-worker had a problem locking their computer when they left to go home and it wouldn't auto lock. I gave enough warnings to lock his computer. One day I brought in Donuts, balloons, and birthday decorations and sent out an email to everyone in the group offering up donuts if they called him "The Birthday Boy". This was approximately two months before his birthday, and everybody loved it but him. When he walked in I happened to be near him at the time, has he proclaimed "Oh its someone's birth... Wait?" It was priceless! I also enjoy placing official-looking notices to lock your computer when someone forgets to lock it when they walk away

Cory Schwarting

After fixing a machine, make noises that sounds like it's still broke when starting it up

This is specific to CNC machining, but there is generally a setting inside the control called “Auto Power Off”, where the machine will power down when it reads the M30 code, signaling the end of a program. Totally harmless, but annoying, and there is a couple seconds of freak-out when the operator doesn’t know why the machine shut down.

Delivery Driver here. I love to body check the sides of the other drivers' vans when they're backing up and looking in the opposite side mirror from me! Always gets a jolt and a sharp comment in reply!

I am not a huge fan of pranks, but I have been witness to a couple doozies over the years at work. The most impressive was a co-worker who left on a work trip for 2 weeks, but left his car with the sunroof open in the corporate garage. When he returned his car was full of packing peanuts.

Not one I've done but my uncle did. Attach zip ties to the radiator fan blade so as it turns in their vehicle the tail is hitting everything around it, sounds bad but doesn't hurt anything

Tape a paper dot over the laser of a mouse or CTR + ALT + arrow left, right or down to change the screen orientation.

Stick a vibrator to the underside/back of someone’s desk and set/mod it to go off randomly.