So you’re sitting in your cube, wondering whether or not your office chair was previously “gently used” by a 400 pound man with a sweat condition (yes, used office furniture does actually exist), and your coworker makes the mistake of announcing he’ll be leaving on vacation, or a short business trip. Poor soul. He’s left his cubicle in the hands of his prank-minded coworkers. Here are ten office pranks that go beyond the funny and into the realm of awesome.
10. Ever Get SO Mad
What impresses us is less their idea and more the technical skill it took to make this work. The careful saving of the sawdust, the precise cutting to fit the keyboarrd through the plywood. Truly, masterful.
9. Merry Cubemas!
There’s nothing that announces the holidays like constructing a little house for your coworker out of cardboard, wallpapering it with wrapping paper, and stringing it with lights. But did they manage to fit a tree in there?
8. Finally, The Bathroom Comes To You
One of the biggest problems with cube work is having to get up to go to the bathroom. Some extremely civilized soul decided to solve that problem, raising productivity and office happiness in one fell swoop by bringing the Internet to all the bathrooms.
7. Keyboard Bonsai
Again, it’s just the sheer craft of this that’s awe-inspiring. Notice how carefully the sprouts are woven into the keyboard, as if they were really growing out of it. We’re guessing that whichever company this prank happened at, they don’t have a lot in the way of actual work. We wish we could get paid for this.
6. This One is Actually Kind of Sweet
Awwww, they’re going to miss this cube’s owner! We wish our going away party had involved papering our cubes with Post-Its, instead of the boss catching us on Twitter and throwing us bodily out the window. It would have been more fun. And softer.
5. It’s a Jungle in There
Sometimes, the best pranks are the most elegant. This is one you could do with a forty-buck visit to the closest florist and five minutes of Bob down the hall away from his cube. And, hey, that cube has to smell awesome.
4. Shrink-Wrapped for Your Protection
There’s something to be said for the shrink-wrapping of products. Sure, it’s environmentally wasteful, but it’s quick, convenient, and useful. Also, if you need to move your cube, you can just wrap it up, have a forklift pull it out, and ship it across the country!
3. Rubik’s Cube
OK, you’ve made it look like a Rubik’s Cube. Now…make it so you can actually rotate the cubes and solve the puzzle, otherwise the cube stays locked.
2. Well, I Guess You Don’t Need to Bring a Cup
Here’s our question: they lay out all these cups, right? It takes them hours, most likely. And nobody brings any beer or ping-pong balls? Come on, guys, if you’re going to slack on an epic scale, you need to push the line until it breaks!
1. Everyone Knows It’s Twinkie…Wait, Wrong Jingle
So, you’ve been away on business, and you return a few days later, only to discover somebody or somebodies have filled your entire cubicle full of Twinkies. You are now faced with an important question in workplace politics.
Do you just share with everybody, or do you try to figure out who did it and deny them Twinkie goodness?
Dan Seitz