Back when I was in the corporate world, here are some April Fool tricks I thought of, but never had the guts to actually do.
Pretend that I had received the following email from “Properties” and was told to forward it to my department: “In order to encourage employees not to spend too much time in the bathroom, properties has fitted the toilet seats with a timing device. After 5 minutes you will feel a mild shock followed a minute later by another stronger shock and so forth. We feel this is necessary due to a general drop in productivity and the perception among some that a trip to the bathroom can be treated as a mini-vacation. Thank you for your cooperation!”
Another one: “After a number of complaints and one serious injury we are once again instituting our blind-corner call system for all cubicle domiciled employees. Cubicle walls are 5 feet, 5 inches high (1.65 meters). Any employee whose eye level is below this height who approaches a blind cubicle corner must shout in a loud voice the word, “CORNER!” This will avoid any would-be collisions and subsequent work-related injuries. Using common sense in applying this directive will go a long way toward maintaining a cordial and safe workplace.”
And one more:
“My friend, Loof Lirpa from the first floor of our building asked me to pass this along to my work group.
He brought his pets to work yesterday as part of a cultural diversity demonstration. The pets are three Senegalese Biting Lizards from Loof’s native country of Senegal. Loof was up on our floor borrowing some bags of coffee and unfortunately the lizards got out of their cage. Loof searched for a long time, but was unable to find them. Animal Control will arrive this afternoon and the search will resume after work today.
Everyone is cautioned to be on the alert as these lizards will sometimes bite with little or no provocation. Don’t worry; the bite is painful, but not poisonous. Each lizard is about 22 inches long and about the same pattern coloration as our carpet.”
Feel free to use these in your work group.... as I never did. By the way Loof Lirpa is April Fool spelled backwards.
One done in an office where I worked, years ago, when the receptionist would write down all phone messages: One of the salesmen got a message from Mr. Baer, and the phone # left was the local zoo. He actually didn’t figure it out until the 3rd time he called.