CareerBuilder.com Reveals Top 10 Picks For April Fools' Day Pranks Based on Annual Survey

James Fritz

Are you someone who dreads April Fool’s Day — still haunted by the whoopee cushion Tommy placed on your chair in 3rd Grade? Or do you plan and conspire for weeks about every detail that will make your prank the talk of the office for years to come? Love it or hate it, 29 percent of workers say they have either initiated or been on the receiving end of an April Fool’s Day prank at work. This is according to CareerBuilder.com’s annual April Fool’s Day survey, which was completed in March 2007 and included more than 6,800 workers.
While covering someone’s cube with aluminum foil, faking a resignation or gluing office supplies to the desk continue to be among the most common pranks, CareerBuilder.com has named the top 10 most memorable capers uncovered in this year’s survey:

1. Sent a letter signed by the president of the company that informed employees they would have to take potty breaks in alphabetical order.
2. Decreased the size of boss’s lab coat. Joke continued after April 1 with boss perplexed by his coats getting tighter each week while he was dieting so diligently.
3. Made for a very foggy day with dry ice in the urinal.
4. Changed all of boss’s reading glasses to clear glass.
5. Sent a note to co-worker’s pager that said to contact "George." The number was to the White House.
6. Employee went to the restroom and when he came out, he ran into a wall of tape draped across the doorway, courtesy of his team.
7. Put "random burping" program on boss’s computer that would loudly burp every few seconds — it went on for days.
8. Brought in jelly doughnuts filled with ketchup.
9. Had someone with a "questionable" profession call the office and ask for directions.
10. CEO placed a very large and official-looking "For Sale" sign in front of the building.

When determining whether an April Fool’s Day prank is a good idea, an employee may consider the advice from Mark Twain who contended, "The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year."
To view additional CareerBuilder.com surveys, visit https://www.careerbuilder.com/share/AboutUs/IndustryTrends.aspx.
Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.com among 6,823 private sector employees, ages 18 and over within the United States between February 15 and March 6, 2007. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.
With a pure probability sample of 6,823, one could say with a ninety-five percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of approximately +/-1.2 percentage points, respectively. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies. However that does not take other sources of error into account. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no theoretical sampling error can be calculated.
About CareerBuilder.com
CareerBuilder.com is the nation’s largest online job site with more than 21 million unique visitors and over 1.5 million jobs. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI), Tribune Company (NYSE:TRB), and The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI), the company offers a vast online and print network to help job seekers connect with employers. CareerBuilder.com powers the career centers for more than 1,000 partners that reach national, local, industry and niche audiences. These include more than 150 newspapers and leading portals such as America Online and MSN. More than 250,000 employers take advantage of CareerBuilder.com’s easy job postings, 20 million-plus resumes, Diversity Channel and more. Millions of job seekers visit the site every month to search for opportunities by industry, location, company and job type, sign up for automatic email job alerts, and get advice on job hunting and career management. For more information about CareerBuilder.com products and services, visit https://www.careerbuilder.com.