Crickets And Missing Desks: Pranks At Qualtrax
By on June 20, 2014
Welcome to this week’s blog entry: Prankster Edition!
First things first.
Hi. My name is Will, and I’m a support technician at Qualtrax. :: Hi, Will ::
If you are already one of our amazing customers then you may have heard my voice on the other end of the service line, answering some of your questions, or maybe just sweetening your phone menu experience.
I started with the company back in September ’13, and very quickly came to realize that our building was infested with crickets. Well, if not the whole building, I was at least convinced that my desk was!
You see, we have a gentleman by the name of Allen Tuggle who develops by day and … well, I can’t really say what he does by night. But by the way this devious self-proclaimed prank artist plays tricks on his coworkers, I’m not sure I want to know the extent of the mayhem he causes after sundown.
He’s really not that bad. Okay, maybe he is. Let’s look at the rap sheet:
- Air horn under the chair that screams when you sit down (more than once)
- Sprinkled screws under chairs so they look like they are falling apart
- Remote control spider (more than once)
- Constant Annoy-a-trons and Evil-trons (okay, I may have taken part in some of these)
So, back to the cricket. How in the world did Allen get me to think I had a resident cricket friend? Good question. With one of these little thing-a-ma-jigs… the ThinkGeek Annoy-a-tron:
It’s amazingly small, is magnetized for super-hiding ability, and comes with six sound choices of varying volume! Fun! (except on your first week with a new company)
If I remember correctly, I heard the first chirp that Tuesday, and continued to hear it every 10 minutes or so, in more than one spot of my area, until Friday… at which point I concluded that either my coworkers were extremely deaf or crickets would soon be haunting my dreams. I finally asked if I was being pranked and Allen fessed up. We all laughed together, and I realized that I had not only started a new job with a group of people who know how to have a good time, but an extended journey through prank land with one underlying goal.
Fast forward 9 months.
Our building had just been outfitted with a mother’s room, where women can find privacy while feeding newborns, and since the paint just finished drying, the room was still empty. Allen left work early for the weekend and a light bulb appeared above my head. I can’t remember if I just thought it or actually said it… “That’s funny. Allen left his desk and all his stuff right where it usually is. Silly Allen. It doesn’t need to be here anymore.”
Within 45 minutes I was able to move his desk and all belongings to his new workspace!
We all had a great time that afternoon, tossing around ideas to accompany the room and laughing about what his reaction would be Monday morning. I feel very blessed to work with a lively group who values playing as hard as we work. Thankfully, we’re all good sports here at Qualtrax, and Allen took it like a champ.
After all, he knew he had it coming eventually.
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