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Playing pranks at work can be fun, but if someone takes offense, it can also cause some trouble.

What would you do if you changed someone’s screensaver as a prank, but the guy got really upset and complained, causing the business owner to suspend you for three days?

That is what happened to the guy in this story, so he went out of town for a long weekend, but the whole time his direct supervisor kept trying to call him to get him to come back in for a big sales presentation that had to happen. He ignored the calls and let them deal with the fallout of the situation.

Personally, I think he handled it really well. It isn’t likely that the owner will try to suspend him for something so stupid again. Read through the full story below and see if you agree.

That’s not funny go home for the weekend…..

Over 20 years ago I changed an old timers computer screen saver. You know the old one that just had a word banner scrolling over and over.

He isn’t going to make sales this way.

I worked in sales. There was an old guy named “Bob”. He was annoying. Maybe because I was young. But he annoyed everyone. The kind of old guy that would lie through his teeth to get some of your commission.

Being older he had more “freedoms” with customers. It drove us crazy. He would let people leave or they wanted to buy but wanted to use a coupon he would disconnect the call or get rid of the customer a few different ways.

If he is costing everyone money, they shouldn’t put up with it.

But that meant we as other associates couldn’t make the sale. As a team we couldn’t hit bonuses. He would do many other things like this that would just drive you crazy.

He was just a difficult coworker. And a bad employee. But had been around the industry a long time. So, guys that were now managers favored him because of their past. Whether it was with this company or others.

A harmless prank.

He was just annoying, Too many reasons to list why. And I was young and didn’t have much of a care. And you know. Different perception of professionalism when I was a kid.

So, one day I changed his screensaver to say Bob is a Jackass. I watched him type in his password. Waited until he left. Then changed it.

Finally, he notices.

It scrolled across the screen. Over and over. And he didn’t notice at first. It looked like the same old “Have a Nice Day” or whatever scrolling.

We all would giggle as we walked by and saw it. It was just funny to see. A day or so later he is sitting in his cubicle. Chatting away. His screan saver must have popped up. You hear, what is this. As he reads. “Bob is a Jackass, who did this. This is defamation. Who did it?”

Wow, talk about an overreaction.

The office is laughing. He is upset. Goes right in to a managers desk. “Someone is defaming my name. This is work place harassment.”

I want to know who did it. He makes it to HR. Even to the owners office.

The guy needs to get over it.

We don’t know anything other than him complaining to the manager. The manager saying let’s see. Seeing it. Giggling himself. Then telling Bob “Come on calm down. I’ll change it (which he did) Let’s go take a walk and talk.” Bob is not having it but they walk off talking.

We go back to work. Not thinking about it anymore. About an hour or two later. A different manager says hey Mr Johnson wants to see you upstairs.

The owner is taking it seriously.

Cool, it wasn’t uncommon. He would call associates up for customers or tasks. Or reviews or whatever.

As soon as I get in the office he says “What the heck are you doing? Are you trying to get me sued? This guy is an absolute nightmare. Do you know he has sued that company and that one? Why would you do that? You know it is on security camera right? Using someone else’s login password. You are not supposed to use or share passwords ever.”

Wow, that punishment seems extreme.

I said “it was a joke none of us thought it was that big of a deal. We often share passwords so we can get info we need. We are all on the same team”

He replied “Thats a policy violation. Thats it. You better hope I can keep him from causing a bigger issue. Go home for the next 3 days. Your suspended. Get out of my office get out of my building now”

He isn’t too upset about it.

I walked out the back door. Down the backstairs to my car and was gone. This was Wednesday. So, that meant I had a 5 day weekend. Heck yes. I was stoked.

As I make it to my car. I can hear someone yelling “hey James. James. Peggy wants to see you.” Peggy was the HR lady.

If he is suspended, why would he talk to HR?

I ignored it. Backed out and drove out the other direction.

15 minutes later. My phone is ringing. I am not answering. No way. Those were the days cell minutes were expensive.

Time for a little vacation.

I get home. Tell my wife we have a 5 day weekend. It is barely 12 o’clock. We head out to hit the beach about 3.5 hours away. We are excited.

About an hour later. My phone is called over and over. My wife says just answer it. So I do.

What HR needs isn’t his problem at this point.

“Hey James this is Peggy. I need you to sign some forms about the 3 days suspension.”

“Sorry Peggy I was told to Leave. I left. I am now out of town. I will have to Sign another time.” She is not thrilled but not much we can do.

His supervisor doesn’t even know what is going on.

Then a moment later another call. It’s my direct supervisor. “James where are you? We need the numbers put together for this client coming in today. And you had the presentation stored on. And this. And that…. Where are you?

“Mr Johnson sent me home for messing with Bobs screensaver.”

Sorry, boss, that’s not happening.

“Nobody told me. Why didn’t you come down and tell me? Well come back and give me the reports and send the files to me”

“Sorry, I was told to leave the building right now. I have actually already left Town. I am over an hour away and won’t be turning around.”

“Then give me your password.”

The supervisor better talk to the owner.

“I can’t do that either. I was told not to share them. Sorry sir. My phone minutes are being used and I can’t talk much longer. I don’t know what to tell you. Mr Johnson sent me home. Said leave and said not to share passwords. I am about to go through the coastal hills and will lose reception.”

“Be here first thing tomorrow morning. We need to keep these projects moving.”

“Well sir. I won’t be back until Monday. I was told to leave for three days.”

Mr. Johnson’s mistake is not his problem.

“You have to be kidding. He didn’t mean three days. I will talk with him”

I turned my phone off. Back then. Turning your phone off wasn’t like turning off a smart phone. So, no big deal. But Sunday. When I listened to messages. My manager was telling me Mr Johnson didn’t realize we had projects in the works that I was leading. And that he wants me to come back. The next day.

This is the right way to handle abusive management like this.

Then the next day. His message was my manager saying Mr Johnson is ok if I provide my password to my manager just this time.

Hey, he said leave. I left. He said. No sharing. No sharing. He said three days. For a company that never gave anytime off. It was awesome to have a nice long weekend.

It’s like it never happened.

Came back to work and in this business. No big deal. Nothing happened. They made or didn’t make the deal. Maybe postponed it. Wasn’t my problem any more. They worked up new reports and figured out the presentations.

It was all back to normal. It wasn’t like now I was in trouble. Nope. Had my days off and some more. And back to work Monday making a sale. And when your in sales. Problems go away if you sell something.

The one bad thing is that Bob is still there, hurting everyone’s performance. Oh well, at least this guy got a nice vacation out of the situation.

Check out what the people in the comments have to say about what happened.

Don’t make rules that people won’t follow.

This was pretty surprising.

It is good when employees have some stability.

This person loved the story.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who received a work email from a place she never even applied.

Bob should have been fired long ago.

The big boss should have thought things through before suspending him. At the end of the day, however, this is clearly a bad working environment, so he should be looking for a new job.

Having a coworker who can’t even take a simple joke like this would be terrible.