Laughing while you work

Employees should brace themselves for creative pranks come April 1

Imagine opening your office door and finding a beach scene, complete with sand and beach toys. Or finding your cubicle filled with foam balls and covered in plastic wrap.

These are just some of the tricks employees have played on their co-workers in the name of April Fools'.

In Canada, 78 per cent of the 100 executives surveyed by staffing service Accountemps said their employees don't play April Fools' jokes on each other at work.

However, a survey of 2,500 workers by United States-based online job site CareerBuilder.com found that one-third of workers have played a practical joke on a co-worker and 17 per cent are planning an office trick for this year's holiday.

Some of the quirkiest jokes employees and executives reported in the surveys include:

•Changed the caller ID on a co-worker's phone to read Mr. Kitten every time he called someone.

•Filled a colleague's office with sand and beach toys.

•Pulled the shelves out of the break room refrigerator, hid inside and jumped out at co-workers as they opened the door.

•Locked all the doors, shut off the lights and put a "Closed" sign in the window when the boss went out for lunch.

•Filled a co-worker's cubicle with small foam balls and then covered the entire cubicle plastic wrap

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