Forget trapped staplers, the real legends of office pranks go way beyond anything Jim Halpert ever dreamed up.
In workplaces everywhere, boredom, creativity, and a touch of mischief collide to produce moments that live on in company lore, and often even become tradition.
These aren’t just quick gags; some take weeks of planning, others happen in a split-second of opportunity, and all of them leave lasting memories, and sometimes a mess for HR to deal with.
These pranks prove that surviving the 9-to-5 grind is easier when you can laugh at the chaos. Just remember: what goes around comes around.
1
At my first job 12 years ago, we couldn’t share music files by email, but my work buddy begged me to. Moments after I sent him a song, I got a fake “we’re locking your account” pop-up. I panicked until I heard him laughing a few cubicles away. He’d made i
2
Two coworkers sat across from each other, and while they were both out, our boss suggested switching their cubes. We moved every item so their desks were identical but swapped.
3
In the mid-90s, we cleared a coworker’s cube while he was on vacation and sealed it with crime scene tape. We told him the office had been raided and his things taken as evidence, he believed it instantly.
4
I put a box of water on a coworker’s forklift so he’d get soaked when he sat down. Instead, the warehouse director hopped on, and the joke lost its punch.
5
Someone once took the ball out of my mouse late at night when I had a deadline. I borrowed another, then loudly announced the next morning that someone had “castrated” my mouse.
6
My buddy used hand lotion every morning, so I bought the same bottle, emptied it, and filled it with mayonnaise. He actually used it. I started laughing so hard I had to confess.
7
My coworker ate a Nutella sandwich daily, so one day I swapped it for Marmite. His reaction was priceless.
8
I’d remove all but three staples from my coworker’s stapler every day. You’d hear “staple… staple… staple… click, click, ‘D*** it!’” from across the room.
9
If someone was out for weeks, we’d grow chia seeds in their keyboard. They’d return to a tiny field sprouting between the keys.
10
If a coworker left their computer unlocked, I’d screenshot the desktop, hide the icons, and set the screenshot as the background. They’d keep clicking on nothing, confused.
11
My boss liked running up behind me shouting, “You’re fired!” just to mess with me. It might’ve been funny once, not 500 times.
12
We once “shrunk” someone’s entire desk, replacing everything with miniature paper versions.
13
I replaced someone’s printer paper with sheets lightly watermarked with a silly photo of them from Facebook. The boss held up their report to the light and saw it.
14
At one job, IT would read your new password aloud and make you repeat it. I changed a coworker’s password to “I_suck_monkey_balls”, they had to say it twice.
15
A coworker kept a folded blanket on her chair and used it when cold. I filled it with hole punch dots; three weeks later, she shook it out and made it “snow” in the office.
