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Nearly One-Third of Workers Involved in April Fools' Day Pranks at the Office, Finds CareerBuilder.com Survey

CHICAGO, March 27, 2008 - Have you heard whispering around the office? Has there been a lot of giggling coming from the cube next to you? Keep your guard up … you are just a few days away from becoming your co-worker’s next April Fools’ victim. Thirty-two percent of workers say they have either initiated or been on the receiving end of an April Fools’ Day prank at work. This is according to CareerBuilder.com’s annual April Fools’ Day survey, which was completed in March 2008 and included more than 6,800 workers.

While covering someone’s cube with aluminum foil, faking a resignation or gluing office supplies to the desk continue to be among the most common pranks, CareerBuilder.com has once again named the top 10 most memorable capers uncovered in this year’s survey:


1. Placed a pair of pants and shoes inside the only toilet stall in a men’s room to make it appear someone was using the stall. It sat there for hours until someone called security to check if the person had died.

2. Sent a fake love note to a co-worker from another co-worker.

3. All the women in office individually spoke to the president, confiding that she is pregnant. By noon, he 'knew' that all of his female workers were pregnant and he could not tell anyone because each asked for confidentiality.

4. Called electric company, used a co-worker’s name (and personal information) and said he was moving so the electricity got turned off at the co-worker’s house.

5. Filled the vending soda machine with cans of beer.

6. Adjusted the sprayer in the kitchen sink to squirt co-workers when they turned on the water.

7. Placed a sign on the restroom door that read, “The Company ran out of toilet tissue; please use your own resources.”

8. Paged a co-worker over the loud speaker claiming the CEO was looking for him. The worker went into the CEOs office and the CEO didn't know who he was or why he was there.

9. Shrink-wrapped everything in a co-worker’s cubicle.

10. Put a 'house for sale' ad in the newspaper regarding a co-worker’s home.

Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.com among 6,897 U.S. employees (employed full-time; not self-employed) ages 18 and over between February 11, and March 13, 2008, respectively. With a pure probability sample of 6,897 one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 1.2 percentage points. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies. A full methodology is available upon request.

About CareerBuilder.com
CareerBuilder.com is the nation’s largest online job site with more than 23 million unique visitors and over 1.6 million jobs. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI), Tribune Company, The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI) and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), the company offers a vast online and print network to help job seekers connect with employers. CareerBuilder.com powers the career centers for more than 1,600 partners, including 140 newspapers and leading portals such as America Online and MSN. More than 300,000 employers take advantage of CareerBuilder.com’s easy job postings, 26 million-plus resumes, Diversity Channel and more. CareerBuilder.com and its subsidiaries operate in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit http://www.careerbuilder.com.

CareerBuilder Media Contact
For all media inquiries and interview requests, contact:

Jennifer Grasz
(P) 773-527-1164
(E) jennifer.grasz@careerbuilder.com