Let's surprise Martin!

[EmilieT]

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Note: If you're reading this, Martin, please stop and go enjoy your holiday 

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Hi everyone, 

As most of you know by now, Martin is on holiday for the next two weeks. When he returns from his well-deserved time off, rested and relaxed, @Marjo and myself would like to welcome him back in the office in the most friendly fashion - and that's where we need your help 

Do you guys have any ideas of funny office pranks we could prepare to welcome him back? We're looking to do this mainly around his desk or his set of drawers, something creative/imaginative, doable for us, and most importantly fun 

Thanks for your help in advance, and looking forward to your suggestions!

PS. If possible, we'll document the prank and share some photos as well, so you can follow the prep and execution!

[Anonymous]

Unplug the network cable from the back of his PC but then just push the plug back in just far enough that it rests in the socket but doesn't make a connection.

He'll be able to log into Windows (unless you have a security policy that scrubs profiles on log off or are using thin clients) but he'll not be able to access the internet or any networked stuff.

Guaranteed he'll be scratching his head for at least 5 minutes.

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous ... I like the way you're thinking 

[pgn]

Jokers! Tsk. 

Now what ARE you gonna do? Photos, please! 

[gmarkj]

Quick answer @EmilieT, he didn't.
When someone else in the office started stamping on them to pop them and he nearly had a heart attack we thought it would be safer to cut them with some scissors.
The first one that got stamped on nearly had him lying on the ceiling though.
Rather amusing for us, not so much for him I would guess!

[EmilieT]

@viridis 

@Anonymous 

@Anonymous

All those are great, they would definitely surprise him  

@pgn

We're going to decide next week, mid/end of the week, so we'll keep you guys posted  Until then, feel free to post more ideas!

@gmarkj

I scare and jump easily so I probably wouldn't have liked hearing those balloons being popped up more than your colleague did ... but some of you were entertained and it was all in good fun 

[Anonymous]

A huge gift wrapped & tagged box shaped gift on his work desk saying something like 'Welcome Back Martin'

Inside is a box within a box within a box / parcel

Then finally some suitable (or not) words on a mug 

That's my best offerring 

[EmilieT]

I like the idea of using the Russian doll system Thanks for the idea @Anonymous! 

I've used something similar before to wrap up presents for my brother, using boxes for different products one inside the other, so we would have a little laugh before he found out what his present really was.

[Marjo]

I also like the boxes within boxes idea @Anonymous.

In my previous office some years ago, someone pranked me by turning my monitor view (not the monitor itself but all the windows) upside-down while I went to get a cup of coffee and left the computer unlocked. I think it was my boss lol based on his face. It was super annoying trying to figure out how to turn it back and it has taught me to always lock my screen when leaving my desk ever since.

[EmilieT]

Hey guys, we've picked something and we'll make sure it's in place for Monday ... it's very colourful  Thanks @gmarkj, @Cleoriff, @viridis, @Anonymous, @Anonymous, @Anonymous and @pgn for chipping in with your thoughts on this one!

We'll share some pictures with you guys next week, just in case Martin reads this thread over the weekend - we don't want to risk ruining the surprise  Until then, have a lovely weekend!

[Marjo]

Hey guys so @Martin-O2 looked quite happy with his desk when he arrived to the office this morning. Thanks for all the ideas guys! We decided to cover the desk as well as the pedestal and some other items in colourful post-it notes! It was super fun to do (and relaxing!) and I wish I could do that with ALL the desks here at the office.

Multi-purpose: when he decides to take them down the post-its can still be reused for note-taking. 

We wanted to combine this with another one: weird A4-sized photos printed in all his drawers. But the post-its took already a lot of time so this other one we didn't get to do unfortunately. (Yet lol.)

Preparing....

  

Desktop:

Lamp and a couple of pens got tiny post-its too:

Pedestal:

We decorated ourselves too as a celebration of getting it done at the end