Practical jokes and the office place

Published on July 25, 2004 By chiprj In Humor

This is going to turn into a multiparter because there's just too many for one post.

For as long as I can remember, I've enjoyed playing jokes on people. I try to stay good-natured and there are lines that I won't cross, but a good laugh at another's expense is a good day for me. A good laugh at my expense is also a good day. I think I'm a good sport and I don't mind them being played on me - too much. I can take a joke; I just like doing them better.

At the last place I worked, we had strict rules about locking our computers up before we walked away from them. Well, anytime we caught a buddy that had done that, we always tried to 'teach them a lesson.' We're not required to lock our computers where I work now, but now I do out of habit.

If a person leaves their computer unlocked, you can reset their mouse to function in reverse. Just set the mouse to left-handed operation and the right and left clicks become reversed. You can also set it so that if you move the mouse up, the cursor will go down (and left becomes right). Combine this with changing the speed of the mouse/cursor, and even after the person figures it out, they will still have trouble fixing it.

Another trick to do is to do a screen capture of what's on their monitor. Then save the screen as a BMP file and set that as the background and close all the programs. The screen will look as if everything is still open. When the person returns, they won't be able to figure out why nothing closes or changes. This one can go on for a long time. We had one spend about 10 minutes quietly cursing at his monitor. When he finally broke down and asked for help (he still hadn't figured out what was wrong), we helpfully suggested he just turn the computer off and back on. When he logged back on, the screen returned to exactly how it had been. We couldn't help but laugh at that point. That one circulated around the office for a while after that.

You can also change the background or theme in other ways. Change the screen resolution, default font, color scheme and sounds. All of these can be done in a very short amount of time.

When someone walks away from an unlocked computer, you also gain complete access to their work email accounts. One popular joke at work was to send homosexual emails to other coworkers (as negrodamus wrote Link - people in the military usually revert to attacking each other's sexuality for humor). We had a guy leave for an entire four-day break with his computer still logged on. We spent our entire 12-hour shift composing the perfect confession email addressed to all of his team. When his wife showed up for her shift that evening, we told her all about it and she thought it was great. Then we logged the computer off right in front of her. She was pissed that she didn't get her chance to mess with his email.

It's also funny to add them into the 'to' line of the email and open it up for them to see when they come back. We had one guy not even realize he had sent it until he'd forwarded it to some of his friends to show them how some 'sucker' had been gotten.

Another email joke is to compose a pissed off email to the boss and leave it open and unsent. Then lock the screen up and wait for their return. This is best if you stay close enough to keep them from accidentally sending it.

I recently saw someone catch a buddy who had not only left their computer logged on, but they were also logged on to eBay. The guy placed a $5.00 bid on some oversized granny panties to teach the guy a lesson.

Well, there's many more but this is long enough. I'll write up more later.

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