Pranks

i work in IT, and since our group is fairly typical, there tend to be a fair number of pranks that happen. Or, at least, a fair number of pranks that get talked about. To be fair, there are a few pranks that are pulled off, but most of them are so lame that they aren't even fair pranks. Most of the ideas revolve around waiting until someone leaves their laptop alone without locking it, and then sending an email to their boss (or their boss' boss) telling them how much they are loved. Or installing some program that changes their desktop background every 30 seconds. Or setting their screen saver to come up after 2 seconds of inactivity. The last two haven't even happened, that i'm aware of, just been talked about. Oh, there's also the class of 'disconnect some wire so the person can't use their mouse/talk on their phone. Really, i would call most of what goes on around here hijinks, not pranks.

Our boss (let's call him B) actually comes up with, and pulls off, the best pranks. i have a fairly gullible coworker (let's call him G) who is most often the victim of these pranks. Once, for example, G was about to go on vacation to Vegas for a week. At some point during his last day before the vacation he got pretty frustrated with something and swore loudly. Across the cubicle divider from him is someone who didn't appreciate that. G realized that. Soon after the incident, he left for Vegas. When he got to Vegas, he had a voicemail from B saying that a complaint had been filed with HR and he needed to call B about it soon. He freaked out (thought he was going to lose his job) and called B, who directed him to another manager (M) because "i don't think i can be objective in this." So G called M, who was also in on the prank, and M led him about for a little before breaking the news to him. Thankfully, G is good-natured about it all.

So there have been a few good pranks, but so far no one (including me) has really stepped it up besides B. i'm not that much of a prankster, though if i'm going to pull a prank, i do have my standards. My main goal is to prevent people from pranking me. So far, it seems to be working. The others on my team seem to think that any prank they pull on me will be revisited on them in mutated and larger form. i think they're intimidated by stories about pranks from Caltech and assume that i am heir to that legacy.

And they don't even know about Alley Assassin.