Proud Programmers Blog

Tags: Office Pranks

In February 2010 I changed employer, and at the local office we are 4 people sharing a cubicle….

Obviously I was bragging too much of my desire to exercise, so my colleagues started a process to get me started with spinning down at the local gym. As a punishment for not showing up at the super-early spinning sessions (06:30 …), a guy at the office one day removed all my stuff from my desk, even the desk itself!

Ha ha, let the games begin!!

The following Monday, I brought with me my Annoy-a-tron from Thinkgeek. This is a small electronic device …

…which emits a short, extremely annoying sound for a split second. This was the first time I was able to actually use, and boy I was looking forward to this!

I showed up early, so I could find a fine spot for it. As it has a magnet, it is pretty easy to stick it on any magnetic object, so I desired to place it underneath his desk. I was first afraid that it would be easy to spot its whereabouts, but it turned out to be impossible to track down!!

My colleague – the target - arrived, as well as an innocent colleague ….

They instantly noticed the sound …. “hey, what was that????” … looking bewildered around. They ask me if I heard it, and I said “no …” trying to not burst into laughter …

They gave me the best excuse …. “ahh, you probably don’t hear it because the sound was really high pitched…” (I am 46 and the target is 39!)

The annoy-a-tron emits a sound every 2 to 10 minutes, and can be adjusted via some small switches on the board, and from now on my colleagues became more and more frantic! For every sound, they tried to super-focus on where the sound came from. And believe me, watching my target staring with empty eyes at the wall, hushing on everybody in case another sound came along, will be remembered for ever ….

Every time they complained about the sound, I could tease them with “whhoo, don’t you start to bug me again with pranks, after all you did with my desk the other day!” … super excuse

After a couple of hours, all cupboard-doors was open, the server door was open … “it has to come from here …”. “…here”. “…here!!!!”, and the target was seriously planning to open the mains-sockets to see if something was short-circuiting inside….

My innocent colleague was poking her ear, and staring to feel uncomfortable ….

Several times during these hours I had to go to the restroom just to laugh it out. It was hilarious to see their frantic faces!!

I decided to abort the prank some hours after lunch, as the innocent colleague was getting really annoyed ….

Coming home that evening my cheek-muscles were completely exhausted …

My verdict for annoy-a-tron? One of the absolute best pranks I have ever pulled!!