Thursday, July 15, 2010

A Joke Gone Bad (Kind Of)

I’ve written about my principal “Barry” before.  He’s a difficult boss.  Sometimes he’s a good boss, other times he is not.  Over the past couple of years he’s spent a lot of time feeding his ego with the success of his teachers and because of that his actions have pit grade level teams against each other in this weird competition that has caused a lot of stress.  In addition, he has taken my team for granted because we are efficient, get “the job” done, and are pretty low maintenance.  Sometime he makes us so frustrated.

My team had the opportunity to write a grant for professional development money.  Since we played right into that competition thing, we decided not to tell anyone that we were writing the grant as we didn’t want anyone else to write one too and take our ideas or limit our chances in receiving it.  However we needed to have our principal’s signature on the paperwork before we could send it in. 

We waited until the last possible minute and set up a meeting with him.  Even then, we wouldn’t tell him what it was about because we didn’t want it to get around.  That made him a little nervous, and since we were tired of him not giving us enough credit for our successes, we decided to play a little joke on him. 

The four of us walked into our meeting with a piece of blue copy paper, in addition to our proposal.  Just a week or so before the “intent to transfer” requests were passed out and they had been run on blue copy paper.  We also walked in with very serious faces.  Jason, from The Jason Show, was chosen as our speaker because the rest of us were worried we’d break into a giggling fit.  When we sat down around the conference table, Jason told “Barry” that we’d been doing a lot of thinking, blah, blah, blah, and were therefore putting in for a transfer.  Jason kept a completely straight face while telling him, but the rest of us were covering our face with our blue paper and looking away, trying not to burst into laughter. 

The look on “Barry’s” face was priceless full of fear.  The fear was probably more for selfish reasons that he might lose 4 of his best teachers on staff.  He stumbled over his words a little before Jason stopped the joke and said, “Just kidding, we’re just here to get your signature on a grant we wrote.”  “Barry” was not happy with us.  It actually put him on the defensive and he ended up being kind of negative about our grant (see, not always the best boss). 

I rarely do practical jokes, not for any moral reason, but because I’m really bad at them.  I can’t get through them without giggling or laughing and giving myself away.  But the unsuccessful nature of this one might be enough for me to stop doing them period…just kidding!

Do you like practical jokes?

mamakat

16 comments:

  1. I can't pull them off but I'm a huge fan of watching them go down on other people. People who can't laugh at themselves are annoying. Like your boss:)

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  2. Yeah, that definitely could have gone the wrong way. What if he'd said "oh, well. Best of luck.'? That would not have been good.

    I'm not good at practical jokes either. Stops for stopping by my blog earlier.

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  3. I'm not good at practical jokes either. Fred is excellent! Anyway, did he sign the application? I don't think that you mentioned. Also, I am just learning now your connection with Jason. Good thing I didn't trash him on your site.
    Take care.
    Your Friend, m.

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  4. Aw, I'm sorry it didn't give 'Barry' a laugh. Did you end up getting the grant?

    Stopping by from Mama Kat's!

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  5. Aw, I'm sorry it didn't give 'Barry' a laugh. Did you end up getting the grant?

    Stopping by from Mama Kat's!

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  6. Stopping by from Mamma Kat's...

    Perhaps it is that many of the people I know don't like practical jokes, so I'm not all that good at it either.

    Too bad that it put him in a bad mood, hope that you still got your grant.

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  7. I don't like practical jokes at all! I always feel terrible making someone else feel dumb or badly so I just can't do it. I like watching them on TV but I can't sit and watch them in person - I am way to uncomfortable:)

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  8. I love practical jokes! They lighten things up and make work a more enjoyable place to be. I'm not going to let this one, gone bad, slow me down.

    So watch out!

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  9. No, not really : )
    We are not jokers around here.
    Was he happy at the end when you got the grant? I like nice bosses. I had a horrible one for a few years and now I have a fantastic one. It makes ALL the difference!

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  10. That is hilarious! I could just imagine my boss if we did something like that...told him that his top sales agents were walking....he would cry!

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  11. oh my gosh! I can't believe you did that. He would have crapped his pants if you left!

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  12. I don't really care for the practical jokes that cause the other people to look foolish. I tend to favor the ones that make the mad at me for a minute before they realize what's going on.

    For instance, when I know that someone is excited about an "important" basketball game or TV finale, I'll wait until the final seconds, especially if its a nail-biter, and call them, you know, "Just to chat." During the NBA finals, I took it up a notch. I called a friend on his landline. I know his phone is in the kitchen, far from the TV. When he answered, I said, "Hey, it's me. I have something important to tell you, but hang on just a second, I'll be right back . . ." and left him hanging. Hee hee hee!

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  13. Oh no! I've had quite a few practical jokes go wrong and I still haven't learned my lesson.

    I hope you guys get the grant.

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  14. Can't wait to hear what your grant was and if you get it!

    Wish I could've seen your principal's face...and Mr. Show!

    As for practical jokes....it was like that at my school until the new regime...and now my friends have all transfered and I am lower on the totem pole...and with class size increase I may be stuck...OOOPS! Just broke my promise of not thinking about work for 40 days of summer! Scratch all that!
    lMnop

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  15. I'm a horrible practical joker but it sounds like Barry really deserved this one! I can totally see Jason pulling this off, too... wish I could've been a mouse in the corner!

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