It was a day the accounting manager (Terri) will never forget… March 5th. We were gathered in a conference room, somber faces all around. The CEO, his staff including the CFO (Terri’s boss), myself as the new FP&A manager. I was sitting directly across the table from Terri. The CEO solemnly spoke directly to Terri, “There are FBI agents in the lobby. They will be up here any moment. They are investigating a serious allegation of fraud and it involves people on your team. There is a probability that people will go to jail.“
“I … I… can’t believe this. There must be some mistake,” Terri stammered, her face turning red. I watched as her neck became splotched, the redness spreading down her throat. She was barely holding it together. Just then there was a knock on the door and two intimidating FBI agents were ushered in. Black suits and sunglasses, almost like “Men in Black”, but not quite. Intimidating figures, solid, tall, athletic. Quickly they approached Terri, one agent reaching into his suit and pulling out a sealed envelope, “We have a warrant for….”
The agent stopped mid sentence as the conference room door swung open and Ray, one of Terri’s team, broke in carrying a large sheet cake, loudly announcing “Happy Birthday”, the rest of Terri’s team right behind him in the hallway. Terri sprinted to the door and pushed her employee back, the cake going almost vertical for a moment, narrowly missing decorating Ray’s shirt with icing, “No, no, not now guys! This is not a good time!”
“This is most definitely a good time,” Ray laughed as he rebalanced the cake.
“Guys, this is serious! Go!” Terri’s hands were shaking, visibly distressed when the whole room broke out in laughter. As Terri slowly turned to the laughter and realized… she had been had. Pranked. Viciously.
The fake FBI agents slid out the back door of the conference room as Happy Birthday was sung and cake cutting began. I had not been in on the joke. I laughed hard at the end, but it was hard to shake the adrenalin rush. Best workplace prank I have seen. But scary mean.
March 5th will be here again soon. Happy Birthday Terri!!! I hope this one is great and memorable… but just a little less so than that one years ago.
You two I will never ever forget! That was pure evil! And of course Ray was involved.