April Brings Out the Fool in Me...Within Reason

I’m a bit of a trickster, and am reminded of this every April 1^st. This time it fell on a Friday, so I was feeling particularly feisty. I pulled off a few workplace pranks that I would characterize as Harmless Fun. I moved people’s nameplates around to different cubicles and had a good time with anagrams on our wall that lists our various programs. (The letters, like the nameplates, are held in place by Velcro, thanks to all the cubicles and their attractive grey fabric siding, making this kind of prank almost too easy.)

At the end of the previous day, I rearranged the letters in fun ways. My favorite was “High Schools That Work” becoming “High Warlock Hotshots.” I originally changed “Texas Initiatives” to “I Initiate Vast Sex,” but I backed off that one, fearing repercussions.

I was hoping for a bit of an uproar, but all I got was a “Hey, they switched our names around!” from my colleague, Dixie Binford, and a not-very-impressed-sounding “Oh yeah, I get it – April Fools Day” from our Tech Support guys when they came looking for Donna Calzada’s name at her cubicle but found mine instead.

My best prank was the piece I wrote as a mock newspaper article, a la The Onion about Region 13 being cited for the excessive use of acronyms by an organization called No More Acronyms, or “NMA.” (I love that joke!)

I emailed it around to a select group of people who I was reasonably certain would (a) find it funny and (b) not chide me for slacking off at work. I got some good feedback on it, too. I considered sending it out as an “All Staff” email, but thought better of it. One thing I’ve learned since the advent of the workplace email culture is that you can make no assumptions about sense of humor in the workplace. What I may find funny others will find offensive and demeaning. As an American artist I know, thanks to people like Henry Miller and Hunter Thompson, I can tell the world to go fuck itself when it “objects” to what I write.

But the workplace is different. And it’s a good time to be employed and receiving a regular paycheck.

Also, an email, like a diamond, is forever.