Now, Tony Miscioni has opened a can of worms here.
Is Horse-play allowed, where you work?
In Horse-play, I mean just guys being guys, having a bit of a joke.
But, things can get pretty serious at times.
Tell me, what is the situation where you work?.

Our horseplay is defined as "anything not related to the job". That said the boss will look the other way if it is grease on a toolbox drawer, filling glove with grease ( we seem to have a grease fetish)or something minor. But if it involves anything hazardous then we are subject to discipline up to firing. I don't get here much, work 13 days then 1 off, and repeat the cycle.

[This message has been edited by spkjpr (edited 03-27-2004).]

Seen lots of folks get sent off to fetch ten feet of "3/4 nimrod" or a "fluorescent tube bender" or fifty feet of "shore line" (I fell for that one). But generally that's about as far that type of stuff goes.

Once worked on a crew were practical jokes consisted of **** like sneaking up behind a guy working in a hot panel and dropping an armload of pipe onto the concrete. That promptly stopped when a guy who was the butt of such a joke punched out the mechanic who had played it.

-John

Horseplay at our place is limited to the continuous (fun) verbal abuse we give each other throughout the day, all day, every day.
Anything physical is considered dangerous, and could get you fired...S

I worked for the phone co. in the first office launching a whole new market (Federal Govt) for this company and we were known as the "A Team" (during the same era that the show was running). We worked our tails off to set a course where none had existed before and part of the ethic was a 'bust tail' and 'we're all in this together so let's have fun' type of rapport. It made for a great environment in a lot of ways.

When my boss would go to headquarters and would call back in, I'd get him every time...

Me: "Good afternoon, this is Brenda..."
Boss: "Brender, this is Dick. How's everything going there."
Me: "I'm sorry sir, Dick who? We don't have a "Dick" in this office."
Boss: "Brender!! It's me!!"

or

Me: "Good afternoon, this is Brenda..."
Boss: "Brender, this is Dick. How's everything going there."
Me: "Dick who?"
Boss: "C'mon, it's me! How's everything going?"
Me: "Ohhhh, you, now I vaguely recall this voice... Everything's ok... well, except for the fire...."
Boss: "FIRE??? What fire? What's happening?"
Me: "Oh, it's nothing really. We just watered everything down and have a tarp over the hole..."
Boss: "WHATTT???"
Me: "Ok, so there was no fire... but we are having a party while you're gone..."

This proved to be somewhat ironic and funnier when I called him from the office on a Saturday as I happened to be driving by and saw all the firetrucks and such around our building after a roofer's tar pot had caught fire. I had a little difficulty convincing him that there really WAS a fire...

Every April Fool's day was a free-for-all. We had a lady who brought in a 'cake' that was really a 9x13 block of foam that she would frost with shaving cream and someone's face always was in it before the end of the day. My part was usually less 'active' and more covert as my silly boss would have a memory lapse and I would hand in my resignation every April 1 much to his shock. One year I added to it the joy of filling his car with balloons (and kept my own car doors locked thereafter).

Our horseplay was generally pretty harmless and rarely included physical rough-housing. There were some funny offers though when one of the guys was stressing over something and said he just needed to pound something. I was furious over something myself and said, jokingly, "Ok, outside buddy boy, I'm up for it." He laughed and declined saying 'I'm bigger..." and I responded that I was madder so the fight might be in my favor after all. We still laugh over it.

It's strange that the topic above this one is about anger and violence in the workplace considering that most of the fights that I've witnessed started out as horse-play.
One in particular that I remember from my underground coal miner days happened in the shower room when one guy was pouring soap on another guys head as he was trying to rinse the shampoo out of his hair. They got into a pretty serious fist fight right in the shower room. It was hard not to laugh at the sight of two grown naked soapy men fighting. They were lucky that no one from management witnessed the fight or they would been clean but jobless.

Horseplay is a great tension reliever.... like everything else, it must be moderated.

I think one of the BIG things wrong about the trades these days is the LACK of fun. You can get a whole bunch done and still have a smile on your face. You don't mind coming to work at all if you enjoy it, of course, this must be stopped at all costs. Your MBA's will tell you a happy man is NOT working hard enough.

I have seen horseplay get out of hand too, with tragic results. The worst example was 2 mutton heads 'chasing' each other with ice water on a deck in the middle of August. For those of you who have never experienced it, read VERY hot. Anyway, near the end of the day, one grabs the entire cooler and throws it at the other, who moved. He hit a 62 year old guy who has been working like a dog all day in the sun, who immediately stroked out, no he did not go home that night. Yup, I'm for a good time, but think about who else you affect.

What horse-play means to me guys, is the acerbic-but humourous comments about the person's Mother or Mother-in-law or their wife/Girlfriend, but it is all taken with a pinch of salt though, It just makes the day go past a lot quicker.
Also there are such comments about people being useless for thier particular employment.
Example:

• That bloody Trumpy is so useless he can't even get here on time!.
• Hey Trumpy, what held you up, we've been waiting here for ages, hope you've got a pie-warmer!.
• No-one told us we'd have to bring our beds with us!

This sort of abuse comes from the Pole Crew of the PoCo, and normally involves long late night calls especially for broken poles.

To the guy that comes in at 5:05 AM, rather than 5:00AM
"So, what did you have for lunch?, Half the days shot to h***, now"

Electure, I like that. We usually tell them,"So glad you could join us."

When I had a crew and there was horseplay between them I knew that they were getting along and would work well together. That would mean that they would work well together. Hey if you can share a joke together, you can work together.

The main one that I remember was when an electrician on first shift hid the second shift mechanics cigarettes. The next morning when the electrician came in he found the top part of his tool box hanging from the rafters. Sure may have cost the company time, but I know that I got a laugh out of it.


[This message has been edited by Scotts (edited 04-07-2004).]

Some of the horseplay can be attributed to people's own actions. My dad has some great stories of horseplay from his career:

He had a favorite hat that he'd take off and set down in various places. He said, "Next time you see my hat, nail it down." As you can guess, it was nailed firmly to the floor the next time it was located and he nearly did a flip when he bent down to grab it as he rushed toward the door and it didn't budge.

He also accused the whole shop of stealing his coffee cup and threatened to glue it to the bench if it disappeared again. The next morning his cup, full of steaming java, sat on the bench full of work waiting for his arrival. My mom has the photo of him drinking from the cup which was glued to a 2"x4".

The phone would ring and the busiest person would disengage from their station to answer it since no one else seemed to be nearby. When the handset touched their ear it would be full of petroleum jelly (vaseline) and a crowd of jokesters howled at their misfortune from around the corner.

.... lots more with similar threads...

OK, I'll share this one from when I worked as a police dispatcher. In the pre-lawsuit-mania days, the new hires would take a lot of abuse. It was part of "paying the dues."

So, here I was, quite new, still being "baby-sat" on the 911 lines.

I received a call, and for some reason the ANI/ALI screen did not change to the new caller's information. That should have been a tip off but I was too new to know better.

There was a man with an Irish brogue who stated he's "Father McLaughlin." He went on to say that he was on his way to an emergency, as he had to go to somebody's house to council them.

(Really, he could have told me anything, since I'm Jewish and wouldn't have caught it anyhow.)

He went on to say that he had a flat tire and needed one of the officers to come over to help him change his tire, "as they have done in the past."

My "baby-sitter" told me that the police wouldn't have done that, and to advise him he needs to either change it himself or call a tow truck.

Father was very persistent, insisting that the police have helped him before. Again, I was told to politely tell the caller that he can either change the tire himself or to call a tow truck.

The priest then argued that he would get his clothes dirty changing the tire, and that he couldn't afford a tow truck, and why wouldn't I send the police to help him, as we had "done before..."

Again, I politely informed him that his only options as far as we were concerned would be to change it himself, or to call a tow truck.

Father sounded quite upset as he said, "Well then, f--- it! I'll change the f------ tire my own damn self!" and then hung up on me.

I was a "little" shocked, and said to my supervising co-worker, "Uh, I don't think he really was a priest..."

Just then, the sergeant came stomping into the room, shouting, "Who just took the call from a priest with a flat tire? He's pretty upset..."

I thought I was in big trouble...until the sergeant could no longer keep a straight face.

Turns out that one of the officers who had worked in the radio room for years is married to a lady who has an Irish brogue. He was the culprit!

I have lots of other stories...

ThinkGood,
If you think that Horse-play amomgst Emergency Crews and Dispatchers was done,
check this one out.
About 7 years ago, when I got my Senior Fire-fighter Rank, I was required to be sent to a K-99 (Structure Fire-Well Involved) as the Officer on the first Responding Appliance.
As a party move, My Fire Chief, organised a "House-Burn" for Training purposes, but never told me!.
I ran to the Station, just like I normally do and we "turned-out".
The House was going "full-on" as we got there.
I was not in on the joke, until a few Hot embers caught the surrounding Hedge on fire, when the wind came up, I changed from an Officer back to a FF, just like that!