Bwahahahaha! I just heard about how badly Natalie Maroun punked our IT Manager ‘well and proper’ this past April Fools’ – yes she did! So, to give some context, Andrew (as much as we love him) is a terrible office prankster. He puts crackers in the smokers’ cigarettes and hides forgetful people’s ‘bits and pieces’ so they think they’ve gone dilly. He caught Natalie last year by convincing her that her bank account had been hacked into while she was on holiday. Andrew generally causes office havoc for a good laugh (his, of course).
Beyond being a prank-star, Andrew is also a little paranoid. He jumps at any emergency and is the first person to predict doom and gloom. When our offices were out of power this week he hooked us all up and duct-taped all our machines into emergency power so that no one would be injured and nothing would be damaged – very helpful! The guy is in the military, so he’s pretty much prepared for anything and reads into everything. In fact, he believes that the film Paranormal Activity is real.
Right... so to the April Fool’s punk. Natalie called Andrew early on April Fool’s morning to tell him that there had been a serious IP (Intellectual Property) breach in the company and that it could only have come from the IT department. For those of you that aren’t au fait with all this – all you need to know is that IP is very VERY important and should never end up in any external parties’ hands! When it ends up being leaked, particularly to a competitor, it’s like giving them a truckload of your best property for free.
So, later in the morning, Natalie got Andrew into our CEO’s office and they conference called through to his Managing Executive, Alan, in Cape Town. They told him that they’d met with the lawyers and presented him with lawyers’ letters. Then they left him to brew a little – as you do. Andrew, of course, turned a bright shade of luminous white as they allowed him to fully feel the effects of his paranoia. He then started to defend himself. Natalie shot him down with venom and then suspended him till further notice... Then they let him brew just a little more...
Eventually, when Andrew looked like he was going to pass out from stress or a heart attack they revealed the joke. He got ‘April Fool’ punked. Sucker! He laughed about it afterwards, but he really did get one of the biggest scares of his adult life (and remember – this dude is in the military!) He was imagining the worst and could see his entire career folding in front of him.
And the lesson? Yes. There always is a lesson... the lesson this week is that you must never dish out anything that you can’t take yourself. Don’t expect people to forgive you for things that you wouldn’t forgive yourself. Don’t expect your team to work any harder than you do (Natalie never does). And then the final lesson – never prank Natalie Maroun, because, yes, she’s great at laughing at herself, but she also never allows a good prank to go unreturned.
Have a wonderful week this week. Laugh at yourself and find some fun in your heels.
Cheers
Jo
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