At one of my former jobs, a co-worker and friend of mine was an avid KU fan. So in order to make sure everyone around her knew this – even the diehard MU fans – she had a stuffed jayhawk on her desk. As a joke, another co-worker kidnapped her jayhawk and left a ransom note, asking for a 3-lb. bag of M&Ms.This particular office prank did not go over well.
Some jokes do, though. On that same co-worker’s last day at our office, another friend dressed up in a clown suit and hid behind her desk. That might be a little funny, but it got a lot funnier when we realized that the departing colleague really meant it when she joked about being afraid of clowns. Fortunately, she took that joke a little better. How could you not, when one of your friends is walking around the office in full clown dress?
It’s pranks like this – and games like Buzzword Bingo – that help us make it through the monotonous or particularly stressful times at work.
One of my favorite illustrations of this is from an episode of The Office. It shows the Dunder Mifflin crew in the meeting room, listening to Michael (the boss) drone on about, well, I’m not sure what but it was clearly not interesting. Meanwhile, we see the employees looking very interested in something just beyond their boss’s talking head – the television. The television has gone to a screen saver of sorts, showing a multicolored DVD logo bouncing from one side of the TV to another. As we watch them watch the TV, we learn that they have created an office game of it – waiting for that wondrous day when the DVD logo actually makes its way into the corner instead of just missing it and bouncing off the edge of the screen.
As much as I love The Office, this episode has stuck in my mind for some reason like none other. I think it’s because it captures office life so well. (If you’re really intrigued by the DVD Logo Game, you can learn more here.)
What office/work games do you play to make it through the day?
