Miscellaneous Monday - It's April Fool's Day!

[ABR]

It's that time of the year again! A time for harmless pranks and mischievous giggles! As a 45-year-old Indian professional woman, I can't help but reminisce about the days when April 1st meant concocting elaborate schemes to fool friends and family. Back in the day, my siblings and I would plot for weeks, brainstorming the ultimate prank to pull off on unsuspecting targets. One year, we replaced the cream filling in Oreo cookies with toothpaste, resulting in some hilariously minty reactions! And who could forget the time we set up a fake ghost using a white bedsheet and a flashlight, sending my poor cousin screaming into the night? As the years went by, our pranks evolved, but the laughter remained the same. Nowadays, April Fool's Day is a bit more subdued in the office, with gentle jokes and playful banter replacing the elaborate schemes of yore. Still, there's a warmth in reminiscing about those nostalgic moments of youthful mischief, reminding us that laughter truly is the best medicine, even in the corporate world. So here's to April Fool's Day, where laughter reigns supreme and memories are made one prank at a time!

What pranks did you play? May be someone pranked you! Let's hear about all the fun and get tickled pink to drive away the Monday Blues!

[Amanda Barber]

My favorite April Fools memory was a few years ago when Easter happened to be on April 1st. We went down to Florida that year for spring break with our young kiddos and had some fun with the eggs and baskets. The girls still talk about it. When I was a teacher, we often brought the kiddos "brownies," which was just a tray of brown paper E's. :-D 

[Barbara Szczesniak]

Wow @Amanda Barber the brown Es—that's speaks to the nerd in me! 

[ABR]

@Amanda Barber Great memories! Love to hear from you!

[Barbara Szczesniak]

I can't believe my brothers and sisters and I did no memorable pranks on each other, so I'm pretty sure our mom put a ban on such things!

[ABR]

@Barbara Szczesniak Maybe you didn't have a official prank day, but I'm sure you, your siblings and even your friends must have pranked each other in good fun! Nothing spells FUN like friendly leg pulling in the growing years! :D :D

[Sam Nadarajan]

I can confirm the "Brown E's" - my wife pulled this fast one on me back in 2014 (Facebook reminds me of it every year lol) but I fell for it hook line and sinker. Also looking at this picture I can't believe how clean our oven was #adulting.

[ABR]

@Sam Nadarajan Ha ha ha! You're definitely lucky to have a wife with a good sense of humor! I believe humor and a strong friendship are the keys to a great marriage!

[Dave Rosenlund _Trundl_]

Great topic, @ABR  😎

Early in my career, the CTO of the company was notorious (in a fun way) for organizing pretty substantial pranks.

For example, one year he and his cohort turn the CEO's office into a one-hole golf course complete with a sand trap and a water hazard.

Another year, he and his prankster team managed to move another executive's expensive sports car onto a stand in the pond that adorned the head office landscaping giving the illusion that car could drive on water (the car was not damaged in any way).  

This tradition went on for many years. The whole company looked forward to April 1 every year to see what would happen next.

[Amanda Barber]

I love playful workplaces! 

[ABR]

@Dave Rosenlund _Trundl_ , Thank you! 

Wow! What a great CTO! It's personalities like these who make office fun, progressive and above all productive!

[Anastasia Bek _Stiltsoft_]

Happy April Fool’s Day, Atlassian Community!
Back in March, our team already had a discussion that we wanted to create some memories for the first day of April. This day also happens to be the first day of the year’s second quarter, so we decided to seize this opportunity. We resurfaced our love for cats and executive pawssistants who have their schedule. With the help of our app, we transformed our cats’ schedule and our passion for cat memes into a themed report and strategy. We shared this before the usual quarter planning strategy, and this cat report definitely set the mood!

[ABR]

@Anastasia Bek _Stiltsoft_ Wow! you and your team really pulled out all stops! What a fun way to demonstrate your app! :D

[Ananjan_Mishra]

It's so much fun here reading these awesome comments. Perfect topic on a perfect day @ABR 

I have a short yet hilarious April Fool's Day memory from my childhood that still makes me laugh every time I think about it. Picture this: I decided to prank my family by swapping the sugar for salt in the sugar bowl during breakfast. Let's just say, my dad's face after his first sip of coffee was a mix of confusion, disbelief, and a dash of betrayal. Needless to say, I learned two valuable lessons that day: never underestimate the power of a well-executed prank, and always double-check your ingredients, especially when messing with breakfast!

Happy April Fool's Day Everyone!!😂😂

[Malka Jackson [Isos Technology]]

This morning, I got up early and attached this little device to my husband's wheelchair. As soon as he started moving, it sounded like back in the day when you would clothespin a playing card to your bike spokes to make your bike sound like a motorcycle. 

https://www.amazon.com/MOL-Bicycle-Exhaust-System-Motorcycle%EF%BC%884pcs%EF%BC%89/dp/B08PXQD6V2/ref=asc_df_B08PDVQW1F/

I got back in bed and waited. It didn't take long for him to get up and head out towards the kitchen. I could barely contain my giggles as he kept checking around and under the chair to see what in the world was causing the noise. When he found it, he started cracking up and left it on for a little while and just rolled around the kitchen like a joyful kid going, "VROOM! VROOM!" 

[ABR]

@Ananjan_Mishra Thank you!

It was so much fun reading about your childhood prank! :D

[Andy Gladstone]

While April Fools was not really a big thing in my house or among my friends growing up - I have no memorable moments to share - somehow the 'professional' environment of the workplace was always the place where the pranks would fly. I remember one year a team ganged up on one of their team mates and 'boxed up' his cubicle. The cubicle had a 6 foot cube box all around it. When the team member pulled the box off, there was six feet of packing peanuts, and inside those were smaller boxes containing his monitors, PC, keyboard, mouse, and desk nick-naks. It took a few hours for him to dig out from the deluge of packing material, but the entire company came by to see the spectacle! He got the team back the following year by crating walls of shrink wrap around each of their workstations that were impenetrable. 

[ABR]

@Andy Gladstone OMG what serious prankster colleagues you have! Office must be really fun!

[Craig Nodwell]

I forget the year.
A neighbor childhood friend ran into our bedroom waking both me and my brother telling us we had a colour television.
My let down is still felt.

[ABR]

@Craig Nodwell What a naughty but sharp kid! While I can feel your disappointment, your friend scored a really good one though! hahaha

[Alex G]

April Fool's Day isn't celebrated in Spain, but what a great topic! 

[ABR]

@Alex G Hey Thanks! Also, thanks for sharing the knowledge tidbit, I didn't know that April Fool's Day isn't celebrated in Spain!

[Rebekka Heilmann (viadee)]

My colleague opened up a dating channel in our Company's Slack and is looking for a partner so either can get the wedding bonus and the extra day off for a pregnancy :D

Note: I work in Germany, so we get off for almost any occassion anyway, so trying to get these extra days is just greedy ;) 

[ABR]

@Rebekka Heilmann (viadee) Hahaha! That's really sharp and funny, if a little greedy! Super! ;)

[Noah - Devsamurai]

I don't have much experience with April Fool's Day, but I love the vibe of this day: prank and be pranked. Love the story that you shared <3 

[Summer Hogan]

I'm so sad I missed this one yesterday, but I loved reading the responses so great job @ABR! 

I have two; one that happened to me yesterday and one that me and one me and my coworkers did to my boss one year.

Similar to @Andy Gladstone's story one year we covered my bosses desk and everything on it in post it notes. It took a lot of post it notes, but it was so much fun and the look on her face was epic!

Yesterday, I took the day off to go to Payson (up in northern Arizona) to do the inspection on my new condo (that I'm going to use to escape the horrible PHX heat in the Summertime) and I got there and the inspector told me the place was falling apart! He was really good at being serious about it. He went on to tell me I should not buy the place. Then he told me he was joking and proceeded to tell me there are only two minor things wrong with the house and the seller is already fixing those. It was pretty funny. He had me going! 

[ABR]

@Summer Hogan Thank you! Glad to know you liked it!

The Post-It prank seems fun! Thinking of using it next year on somebody! ;)

The Inspector really sounds like a fun person and congratulations on your new condo! Hope you really enjoy it!

[Shawn Doyle - ReleaseTEAM]

Most of my pranks were years back when my sense of humor was a lot darker and I shouldn't be recording them here.

One that was terrible but not incriminating.  Our group took turns calling each other's spouses posing as collection agents, saying they were repoing a car, or foreclosing on the house, etc.  I don't recommend this.

[ABR]

@Shawn Doyle - ReleaseTEAM  Oh, wow! You definitely have a very different sense of humor!

[Asha Goyal]

Two decades ago, on that very day, we decided to play a prank by filling gulab jamun with salt and serving it to a close friend at a wedding party. Witnessing their reaction after taking a bite was priceless – a mix of shock and surprise that we could vividly recall. Although we felt remorseful afterward, the memory of that mischievous act still brings a smile to our faces.

[ABR]

@Asha Goyal From your reference to gulab jamun in weddings, I gather you have Indian roots like me! The wedding prank was "sweet"! ;)

[Stephen_Lugton]

Years ago when we all had desktop PCs rather than laptops a couple of colleague and I got into the office early and went around every department putting little stickers on the bottom of random people's mice to cover the optical sensor. 

Apparently IT support got dozens of calls for 'mouse not working' (as people couldn't use their mouse to raise a ticket!) 

In the end they had to get reception to put up a big notice in each building telling people that if their mouse didn't work take the sticker off the bottom, and tell the executive secretaries to 'fix' all the C-Level execs mice before they got there.

[Barbara Szczesniak]

@Stephen_Lugton That sounds like it could be dangerous to your continued employment. 😃 Hopefully it was taken with the humor you intended.

[Stephen_Lugton]

@Barbara Szczesniak everyone except IT support found it hilarious, some people when they found a sticker on their mouse just went and put it on someone else's, and we never owned up.

But that was the kind of company where we were expected to dress up at work for Halloween and had inter-department who can decorate best for Christmas challenges