My manager and three of my co-workers went off to the SungardHE Summit conference in Las Vegas last week…I was left to fend for myself in the office. Nope. I didn’t go. But I didn’t sit idle! I wrangled up a crew (Al, Casey, Cliff, Tim, Laurianne, and a couple others) and “decorated” their offices.

Firstly was my boss’ office, wrapped up nicely in Tin-Foil. See the full article here.

Tin Foil Used: 1,100 square feet
Time Spent: 3 hours
Continual Manpower: 5
Cost: $30

Secondly was Zach’s office, Wallpapered in Post-It Notes. See the full article here.

Post-It Notes used: 5,300 (248.45 square feet of note surface).
Time Spent: 4 hours
Continual Manpower: 3
Cost: $60.71

Thirdly was Dan’s office, covered in cups, a number partially filled with water. See the full article here.

Cups Used: 575
Time Spent: 45 minutes
Continual Manpower: 4
Cost: $25.99

Lastly was Dee’s office, I stole her monitor then filled her office section with balloons See the full article here.

Balloons Used: 280
Time Spent: 1.5 hours
Continual Manpower: 3
Cost: $12

All work was done after hours or during our lunch break on Friday. No work resources were used (save for half a role of tape and a little bit of electricity). A whole lot of plotting and fun was had by all. In fact, our Administrative God, Colleen, helped formulate a plan to ensure that the 4 prankees remained away from the office until Monday morning that involved buy-in from our CIO and the Plymouth State University Facility Services office. Basically, we told them that the carpets were being steam cleaned all weekend with some serious chemicals. Fun times :)

Following the completion of the first prank, I found myself giving numerous tours of the offices throughout the week as each prank was completed. Overall, a lot of fun! When they come in on Monday, I plan to have 4 video cameras…one in each office…to get their first reactions. Thats the plan and if I succeed, the vids will be going on YouTube.

This was our third prank this past week, done immediately following the Post-It Note prank. Using 575 16oz plastic cups, a number of co-workers and I covered my co-worker‘s floor and every other stable flat surface. This prank was actually a pretty fast one as we had a lot of help.

The participants in this prank was done by me, Al, and the Wisniewski family.

The cups were a mixture of clear and red (the red ones were a result of Wal-Mart not having enough clear). First, the word pwnd (a gamer word meaning “we destroyed” or “we devastated”) was spelled out in red cups (placed upside down). The surfaces of bookshelves and the desk were covered primarily in red…and then the floor began to fill out in clear. As cups were placed down, Al went back and forth between the water fountain and filled random cups 1/4 full of water with a blender pitcher.

575 cups is a fairly decent number despite the fact that they weren’t lip-to-lip on the floor. The fact that water was placed in a large number of cups causes me to pity poor Dan (the office resident) and his inevitable clean-up process. Check out the full gallery here!