Printer Friendly Forum Posts - good tricks to play on co workers

although i love to install it does get kinda old and boring around the bay some time so i try to think of thinks to make the day a lil bit more up beat and paced. so we tend to dabble in a lil bit of trickery here and there. for example me and a fellow installer set up for a box of but connecters to fall on our supervisor. today the guys glued beetles and potatoe bugs to my drill and other tools. i mean i can go on for days but to pass some time what r some ideas yall ahve out there

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Wait for one to have his head all the way up in the dash. Take bottled of compressed air. Turn upside down. And release in his pants.

kassdog wrote:

Wait for one to have his head all the way up in the dash. Take bottled of compressed air. Turn upside down. And release in his pants.

I use the basketball needle and stick it in their pants.

I on a weeklyish basis do stuff like hook up a small 12v batt to a left over hood pin and a pizo siren to the cabinet...last time I hooked up a toggle switch to it so I could go in the counter first. Then turn the switch on and ask then to hand me a few zip ties, cuz I forgot. Works every time, and sales floor people are sissies for sirens. Done the same thing to installers boxes, but with a ball bearing switch in the drawer (he should have locked it lol). I can go on with this list for days, but I think my icing on the cake was popping a balloon next to a under dash installers head and seeing it scare him so bad he almost knocked himself out on the steering wheel. I still get evil looks when I talk about it, lol

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RTFM

I think that playing a prank will lead to some one getting hurt or a vehicle being damaged, I would think safety at work because that kind of trickery could be a potential hazard.
What if the kid you scare has a medical issue that they have not told anyone and you scare them into a heart attack or a seizure or something like that. I would be very careful about it or just not play gags and just be watchful for your fellow installers.

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The wire I'm test'n isn't doin' what it's supposed to be doin'... I am so glad I printed that tech sheet, with the wrong info.
Do it right the first time... or I might have to fix it for ya

We had an installer that worked at a shop I used to work at, that was a total prude. Everytime we played a prank on someone, he'd be all "safty first, what if he has a heart attack, Blah Blah Blah" Lighten up man geez... That being said,,,

I'm a huge fan of the old Hitting the horn when their head is under the trunk trink... It never gets old lol.... I've done it so many times, all the guys started taing out the fuse for the horns lmao!

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The Only Stupid Question, is the one Un-asked

clasic one is to grind the heads off some stinger screws, then wait till your buddy is doing a door speaker or an over head monitor preferably when he's focused on the job and not paying attention to the shop. put some hot glue (just a tiny bit) on the grinded side of the screw and then attach it to the door or the roof of the car he's working on.

walk up to the car and say what happend? and then look surprised he goes to look and haha joke is over. no one died

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life is a comedy to think, a tragedy to feel

techman93 wrote:

I think that playing a prank will lead to some one getting hurt or a vehicle being damaged, I would think safety at work because that kind of trickery could be a potential hazard.
What if the kid you scare has a medical issue that they have not told anyone and you scare them into a heart attack or a seizure or something like that. I would be very careful about it or just not play gags and just be watchful for your fellow installers.

sounds like u might just be that guy techman. we are all adults and i think we can handle i lil fun in the work place. with out it, it would just be work. u know that u have had to have had ur fun in the work place.

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When I first started at the shop I work at now, my first drop-down monitor there was in a minivan. When I was done with the install I noticed the roof had corrugations running along the length of the vehicle. So I grabbed 4 wide head screws and placed them upside down arranged above the overhead monitor within these grooves. My boss came back to see the progress and saw these screws. The look on his face was priceless.

I know the story is similar to what davngr posted. But it really did happen so I thought I would share.

Honking the horn is a classic, especially when you time it right as they reconnect a battery or are putting a fuse in a power wire.

I like to keep a couple blown fuses laying around for when an installer takes a break while doing an alarm, I swap the bad fuse for the brains good fuse & see how long it takes them to figure out why nothing works. The quiet muttering of swear words that comes from under the dash is priceless.

Another good one is hooking up a siren or two to our test bench the night before, so when the boss comes in & turns the bench on expecting our shop radio to come on it fires up the sirens.

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Unless it raises the hair on the back of your neck, its only noise!

I like to use jb kwik weld on the bottom of a coffie cup.

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Big Dave

hooking up the battery charger to a length of wire and puching it under a car being wokred on has always been a good one for me. The smoke comes pouring in and the other installers wanna crap in their pants.

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If you say "I already know how", don't ask me a single question.

Bmnicolosi wrote:

hooking up the battery charger to a length of wire and puching it under a car being wokred on has always been a good one for me. The smoke comes pouring in and the other installers wanna crap in their pants.

so just attachin pos to one end and neg to the other? isnt it a lil risky though

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i hooked the horn up to the brake one time in a salesmans car after i installed a phone in it(years ago) we all laughed as he drove away and watched him pretend he didnt hear it, and play it off like he was too cool... 5 minutes later he drove back with his tail between his legs. we were still wizing our pants. I have thought about, but never did remove the wipe wash hose from the resevoir, extend it, and run it into the car up through the crack of the seat.

This is a real good trick to play on All of your Co-Workers. Be the first one to work, everyday. Do every job asked of you. Learn all you can about every aspect of the business. Learn all that you can about life. When installing an alarm, try and find a few wires on your own, using a digital meter of course. We do not know if this internet thing is going to take off. If it does not, you will still be able to do your job. Take pride in your work. Make the underside of every dash you get under look like a MasterPiece. Set a personal goal to never have an install comeback because you made a faulty connection. I know the comebacks can never be eliminated, but a comeback that is not your fault is a good one. The trick comes in a few years when YOU are the one that gets to pick and choose the jobs, or you are the one who is booked up a month in advance because the Public KNOWS that you do good work and they want ONLY YOU to work on their car.

i am an idiot wrote:

This is a real good trick to play on All of your Co-Workers. Be the first one to work, everyday. Do every job asked of you. Learn all you can about every aspect of the business. Learn all that you can about life. When installing an alarm, try and find a few wires on your own, using a digital meter of course. We do not know if this internet thing is going to take off. If it does not, you will still be able to do your job. Take pride in your work. Make the underside of every dash you get under look like a MasterPiece. Set a personal goal to never have an install comeback because you made a faulty connection. I know the comebacks can never be eliminated, but a comeback that is not your fault is a good one. The trick comes in a few years when YOU are the one that gets to pick and choose the jobs, or you are the one who is booked up a month in advance because the Public KNOWS that you do good work and they want ONLY YOU to work on their car.

that is not funny

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i am an idiot wrote:

This is a real good trick to play on All of your Co-Workers. Be the first one to work, everyday. Do every job asked of you. Learn all you can about every aspect of the business. Learn all that you can about life. When installing an alarm, try and find a few wires on your own, using a digital meter of course. We do not know if this internet thing is going to take off. If it does not, you will still be able to do your job. Take pride in your work. Make the underside of every dash you get under look like a MasterPiece. Set a personal goal to never have an install comeback because you made a faulty connection. I know the comebacks can never be eliminated, but a comeback that is not your fault is a good one. The trick comes in a few years when YOU are the one that gets to pick and choose the jobs, or you are the one who is booked up a month in advance because the Public KNOWS that you do good work and they want ONLY YOU to work on their car.

Who says you cannot do such work & have a little fun while you are at it. Life is not that serious, and you should enjoy the little time you get on this planet. I play pranks all the time, and I get my share of tricks played on me. I also have a strong client base & have lots of people request me specifically even though our shop does not book each installer. (our salary is not commission based)

You need to lighten up & have a good prank pulled on you.

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Unless it raises the hair on the back of your neck, its only noise!

I'm fairly new to the proffessional install world, but my old supervisor told me about all the pranks he had done at his old store and I've managed a few of my own since I went full time. Hooking the horn to the brake wire is a classic, we did it to one of the managers when he brought his brand new volvo in for door speakers. Pizeos on the unlocked tool boxes, shrink wrapped my part timer's tool box and left him a ransom note, nothing super serious.

Ya gotta remember...... for each prank you pull at work, there will always be another prank to one up the last one. Turns into an odd cycle after a while.

Wanna have a fun working environment? Go out for beers. Be sociable. Pullin pranks wins no one over..... eventually you will get someone that doesn't see the humor in it, and it goes downhill fast.

I usually warn the young 'uns that they can prank all they want, but if they start pulling it on me, I will get the last laugh (old guys know the best ones, and we keep them to ourselves).

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Wherever I go, that is where I end up......

I have always been into rubber snakes, rats and spiders. In a box full of packing popcorn, a well placed plastic rat (hairy is best) on top of whatever the person is taking out. I like attaching a piece of fishing line to moving objects, so when someone opens a door, pulls out a keyboard or chair, a spider or snake comes flying at them. I had one that was beautiful, I had this kid working for me that was pretty much scared of his own shadow. I tied a piece of fishing line to the door closer and the other end to a 6" plastic spider and set the spider above the door way. When he opened the door, the spider slung down, I had the length perfect because it was exactly at his eye level. He screamed like a little girl and very nearly passed out as it slapped him on the nose.

The small ones work well if you place them on a ceiling fan. When a person turns the fan on, it sends them flying in every direction.

We try to keep the pranks to a minimum. Had a bad experience between a sales guy and manager I worked with. It came down to the sales guy losing his job. I think Gus had a good point, when the team gets together outside of work, you have something to laugh about during work... especially when you come to a party at my house. Controlled pranks are fun, til you lose a friend and co-worker because someone hit a soft-spot.

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95 Mazda 626
Pioneer DEH-P960MP
DEI Stilleto
Boston Acoustic SL60 Front
Boston Acoustic S85 Rear
Alpine V12 MRV-F407
Alpine V12 MRV-T757
2 Rockford Fosgate P2D412
Python 990 Alarm/RemStart

if some one looses their job over a harmless prank, the ill feelings where there before the fact. either way this thread if about good pranks to play on co-workers, don't really need the *soapbox* comments.

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life is a comedy to think, a tragedy to feel

If you can't have fun at work while maintaining a good work environment, then you're in the wrong business. Whatever bay I'm in, we always have fun. This is the industry for fun, point-blank and Period. What guy puts in two subs and an amp because he's bein serious?

If you want stuffy, then push your numbers up and go work in the front office.

A great prank is= a variation of the Horn-to-Brake. Put in a relay, 85 to turn-signal(-), and 86 to Brake (+), 30 to fused +12v and 87 to Horn trigger (+). Now the horn will only go off when they are turning and applying the brake. You're unsuspecting victim usually takes a while before the horn goes off, that way it's not going off in your parking lot. The look the next morning is priceless.

Then there's the ol' "put a cut-off stinger on the outside of the roof while someone is doing an overhead" prank.

I got a newbie one day with a string of shipping air-bladders. I put a string of three of them under the passenger front tire. When he backed the car out of the bay after his install, BAM, BAM, BAM. The look on his blood-drained face, was sheer horror. Ahhh, the days of old.

i forgot about the ole stuff under the tire trick, thats a good one! posted_image

very very very simple but effective, had a new guy starting at work putting a basic alarm in an auto toyota. he'd finished it all, put all the dash back together and when he wasnt looking we put the gear lever into reverse, he went to test the thing one more time and abviously the starter motor wouldn't turn over. the look on his face was priceless, took him ages to figure out what was causing it.

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NZ REPRESENT

Here is one for you Burn a cd of the sound of electronics shortin' out buzzin' fry sizzle, pop put the cd in a cd player in show room so when salesman turns it on they freek out thinking they have fried something seen this done alittle while back everyone was rollin' in the floor almost pi$$ed my pants

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My wife thinks bagging a truck means you kick it in the truck nuts

One of the best pranks I ever saw.. One of the installer that worked with us was getting ready to leave and move out of state. He left at lunch to go and get his pickup, in order to get his tools out ot shop. While he was gone.... One of my coworkers screwed his box the workbench. Toward the end of the day he went to remove his tools from the bay and guess what... He got so wized that he stormed into the front and went off on the store manager, who had no idea what was going on. Needless to say that he finally got his box loose, and left. We laughted for at least 30 minutes.