Employee gets pranked by her 50-year-old coworker by getting her water bottle mixed with coffee cream, she is very upset and worried she’s overreacting: ‘I feel like it’s not okay for anyone to mess with someone’s drink.’ – FAIL Blog

Office pranks aren’t the only thing that needs some regulation. Annoying coworkers too!

I think that if a 50-year-old employee is always doing pranks on the younger coworkers, and he went as far as messing with their food, I don’t think that a manager should take that as funny or unproblematic. It’s actually weird and uncomfortable. Office pranks are a problematic topic, especially because what one finds funny can be traumatizing to somebody else. And there are also the limits that aren’t super clear. They are like a gray area that is almost invisible. But I do think that messing with food is a very clear way to go over the limits.

What is worse about the whole situation in this Reddit story is the fact that the managers see the mess and just laugh. A boss not caring about the employees’ well-being and considering attacking somebody’s food a simple joke shows that this manager is probably not good at his job. Not realizing how much this could escalate and damage the company is not thinking through. The employee that wrote this story is visibly uncomfortable, and now she is receiving internet advice to go to human resources and file a complaint. And if she did, it would be perfectly acceptable. The real issue is having a boss that doesn’t think, that doesn’t realize how much damage a “simple prank” can do to somebody.

Office pranks in general should be banned, except the silly ones like writing jokes on a post-it. But if the prank can cause disturbance, then it should not be done and shouldn’t be allowed. As a manager, you have to take care of your employees and of the company. Letting situations like these occur is a liability. The best way to manage them is to forbid them and to place punishment on the people who do them.