Workplace pranks are weird. For example, you don’t want to be the person who convinced a co-worker that they were fired, like a downgraded version of Michael Scott from The Office. You also don’t want to find yourself pulling too safe pranks, like using a whoopee cushion to trick the office into thinking your nemesis farted. Bart Simpson’s been pulling that shit since the 80’s, it was barely funny then and it certainly isn’t funny now. You have to find the perfect middle ground between “Hold up, serial killer,” and “So lame that the 83-year-old receptionist didn’t even chuckle.”
Shane Green, a cleaner at a Gold Coast state school, was slapped in the face with a prank that could definitely be considered ‘out there’. On the night of the 24th of September 2014, Green walked into the staff room of the school he worked at and was greeted by what looked like the remnants of a good old staffroom orgy. Sheets and pillows had been thrown around, empty beer and wine bottles were strewn over the floor and ‘used’ condoms were abundant, complete with whipped cream and a self-confidence boosting stretch. There were even used party poppers and the remains of a chip packet, because what doesn’t scream orgy like some Thin’s “Light and Tangy” and Reject Shop confetti.
According to Green’s lawyer, Bruce Simmonds, his client wasn’t even told it was a prank until two days after. Speaking to the press, Simmonds said:
“He was horrified and subjected to great emotional stress by this trauma especially when they didn’t own up to the joke and left him believing it was real. He was devastated by the incident.”
When the two co-workers who were behind the prank came forward, Green sank to his knees in disgust. Which seems a rather dramatic reaction to party poppers and a few askew pillows.
After leaving his position at the school in 2014, Green had been relying on his worker’s compensation payments to get by. Now his two former co-workers and the State of Queensland, who were held to be vicariously liable, must cough up an extraordinarily exact amount of $156,051.
Hopefully, the momentary thrill of filling condom’s with cream was worth it in the end.
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