This manager’s April Fool’s Day prank backfired MONUMENTALLY!

Imagine showing up to work last Friday only to have your boss tell you that you are fired, laugh, and walk off.

This supposedly happened to a Reddit user who posted about it here in the r/antiwork subreddit. According to the Redditor, he spent the next two hours following his abrupt termination shutting down his station, packing my stuff, and destroying his client list. He then returned home.

And then his (former) boss called:

Boss- ” Hey Z! Where are you at? I Can’t find you in the office.”

Me-” you fired me. Why the hell would I be at work?”

Boss-” it’s April fools! It was a joke! Get back In here.”

Me-” no. You clearly said I am fired. I’ll be taking unemployment for a few months, and filing a complaint with HR.”

(Gulp!)

As the post on Reddit was blowing up — with thousands of replies and hundreds of DMs — the boss was trying frantically to communicate with the Redditor (72 text messages and 13 voice mails).

Then HR got involved. And we got a happy ending.

In a follow-up post, the Redditor wrote that “after cooling off, talking with HR, some other team leads and a lawyer, for several hours,” the Redditor returned to work on a new team, a $5.15/hr raise, and four bonus weeks of vacation.

And what happened to the manager?

Apparently, he is “losing his position in the company, … has been put on leave [and] looks like he’s fired.”

Here’s the lesson: Forget the fake pregnancy announcements and fake job firings. Stick with simpler gags like bouillon cubes in the showerhead or swap out Oreo Cookie filling for toothpaste (great with the kids).