April Fool’s Day
Perth, 1st April 2010
Today is April Fool’s Day, traditionally a day when people play pranks on each other. Newspapers and media, such as radio and TV, normally carry at least one news story that is guaranteed an April Fool’s joke. They are not always easy to spot though…
I think it is important to create some fun in your life and to me laughter is definitely one of the ingredients of a good working environment. Look around and see how serious people look most of the time! Is it so hard to smile? If you smile to someone in the street you are almost guaranteed to get a smile back…at least people’s faces light up if you greet them with a smile. In my office I like my team to smile and enjoy…they know I always look at the bright side of life and like to poke some fun. Our job is serious but we have to be able to have some fun while doing so and enjoy our work with a smile on our face.
The best April Fool’s Day lighting prank I remember, must be the one about the melting ice. I was working in the Philips’ Lighting Design Centre and some colleagues decided to play a prank on one of the junior staff. At the time he was working on the lighting design for a skating arena, I believe in the Middle East. We did not have computers at the time (yes it was a long time ago…) and all communication happened via telex machines. A fake telex message was created and delivered to his desk, which said something like: “Urgent! We have a big problem because the ice is melting. We believe it is caused by your lighting design. What should we do? Please advise.”
Needles to say his facial expression, being one of total panic, was priceless…and good fun in the office.
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