Office 'pranks'?

[demographic]

Those long summer days must just fly by in the office eh?

[Horse]

Those long summer days must just fly by in the office eh?

You're just jealous

[Yorick]

Those long summer days must just fly by in the office eh?

I did a few winters outside on the building sites. A boring office is much preferable.

[demographic]

Those long summer days must just fly by in the office eh?

You're just jealous

Honestly? Nope.

I genuinely like what I do, not every day mind but all in all it's alright.

[Horse]

Those long summer days must just fly by in the office eh?

You're just jealous

Honestly? Nope.

I genuinely like what I do, not every day mind but all in all it's alright.

As I said earlier, when we worked then we worked hard, producing world-leading technology, often to very tight timescales and on the limits of what could be manufactured.

We were proud of what we achieved. So much so, that we had several open days / evenings for the public to visit. The tours around included demonstrations of the finished equipment (editing and special effects for tv and film) and how we designed and built it.

Ah. The demos. Always an opportunity to piss about. On one occasion, in honour of one guy's foibles, was to listen out for him to say any one of 'actually usually basically generally', then everyone cheered (obv confusing visitors), another was to try and include in your demo explanation as many elements of a full English as possible.*

* As an aside, I went to see Dicken's Christmas Carol on stage a few years ago. Full Victorian costume, etc., very 'true' adaptation. Slightly unusual casting, perhaps, in that amongst the ensemble was one guy whose origins were probably from the Indian subcontinent. His spoken English was equal to the others. Except for just one line, mid-performance, which he delivered full 'wobbly head / Indian accent'. None of the rest of the cast reacted, just continued on.Found out after that he did one line every show that way, possibly as a dare from the director.

So it's not just office workers.

[Jody]

I crashed my car into a tractor on the way home from work one day.
The next day my screen saver had been changed to

"Look out for that tractor"

That was about as imaginative as those office drones could be, I was glad to get out of it.

A good friend of mine working at a farm based 'theme park' instructed one of his underlings to remove all the red balls from the ball pit "because a professional photographer is coming later and red balls mess the focus up". He came by after an hour or so and 'tripped' into the pile of red balls, sending most of them back into the ball pit !

[asmethurst99]

All the pranks and whatnot got stopped in the early nineties in my bit of the NHS (some of it was bullying).
Med students set fire to the ceiling of the student union as they tried to have a bbq inside.
When i worked in a brewery the main pastimes seemed to be clocking off early or drinking

[DefTrap]

When I worked in a factory despatch department, as a yoot, folk used to get shrink wrapped to pallets all the time. They never tired of it.

[Taipan]

Those long summer days must just fly by in the office eh?

Have Builders been regulated out of fucking about on site then? I thought office pranks paled into insignificance next to site larks!

[Horse]

When i worked in a brewery the main pastimes seemed to be clocking off early or drinking

So, contrary to general belief, you could organise a ...

[asmethurst99]

When i worked in a brewery the main pastimes seemed to be clocking off early or drinking

So, contrary to general belief, you could organise a ...

i wasn't organising anything - nice to have a beer at the end of the shift tho

[Taipan]

I used to work with a bloke that worked for Whitbreads when they were still running drays out of Chiswell Street. He said they were all on the piss in there and use to nick/guzzle Gold Label as it was strong. He said he got so pissed once he fell asleep in his car in the Rotherhithe tunnel!

[asmethurst99]

I used to work with a bloke that worked for Whitbreads when they were still running drays out of Chiswell Street. He said they were all on the piss in there and use to nick/guzzle Gold Label as it was strong. He said he got so pissed once he fell asleep in his car in the Rotherhithe tunnel!

Fork truck driver found in the warehouse slowly going round in circles slumped over the wheel.
People drinking a crate of Guiness on a late shift then driving home.
Drayman called Skillo who was always getting his knob out.

[DefTrap]

Have Builders been regulated out of fucking about on site then? I thought office pranks paled into insignificance next to site larks!

Makes you wonder how anything ever gets built, and remains standing.

[wheelnut]

Not really a prank as such, but one that I remember was when one of the lads found out surreptitiously that one of the shift controllers (youngish and not long out of uni and a bit posh) was into Morris dancing.

A plan was hatched, a bit of practice was done, and one front shift 20 of us lined up with hankies, bells and hats and, with Morris dancing music playing gave it the full rendition with him watching from above in the control room.

[Mr Moofo]

I hated office style pranks - generally only funny for those doing it with the aim of humiliating someone else.
The company I worked for (in the past) and a group of people who created pretty vitriolic nicknames for everyone they did like - and used them within their clique and in meetings.

It was made a verbal warning offence - and thankfully complete change to local culture.
Both are just a way of humiliating other employees ...

[rodbargee]

As a seventeen year old in the mail room we got a particularily stinky batch of sellotape to use so obviously sellotaping the weakest member of the mail team to a chair and leaving them in the ladies loo was were it was at. it was eveyone's first job. so as pranks go a real starter effort

[Horse]

nicknames for everyone

We all earned our nicknames. I've been 'Horse' for about 35 years.

[Taipan]

I did a few winters outside on the building sites. A boring office is much preferable.

I remember the first winter in my office job, it was snowing and as I looked out of the window at the snow, hot brew in hand, I did smile thinking that there wouldn't be any more cracked fingers, dew drop on my nose or 4 month long sniffles, during that winter for me.
It used to be fucking bitter on sites some winters.

In my first week as an apprentice the company was building a school extension, the blokes got me, tied me to a ladder, pulled my trousers and underpants down and left me on a pathway as the 6th form girls were coming out. I was mortified.
You'd probably go to jail for that now, but at the time it was par for the course, it never crossed my mind to complain.

I've never worked on abuilding site. Thinking about it, I've never worked smart or hard!