I Pranked My Co-Worker on Day One

So here's something a bit embarrassing but also quite hilarious. On my first day at work as the new marketing assistant for this small startup, I had already noticed how frazzled and stressed out everyone seemed to be with their workload. The office atmosphere was very serious and intense. That afternoon, during lunch break, I came across an empty meeting room and decided to set up a little joke for my boss, who was also the head of marketing. I knew she had this one annoying habit of always checking her emails obsessively on her phone. She would often leave it face down on the table while she worked, so I thought why not add a little something extra? Using a small bit of tape from my desk drawer, I attached a tiny sticky note to the back of her phone with a funny meme about being overwhelmed by work stress. Then, I positioned the phone in such a way that when she picked it up later, she would see it. I returned to my desk just as the lunch break was ending and felt rather proud of myself for this little prank. As colleagues started trickling back into the office space, I watched from afar through the glass window, waiting anxiously but excitedly for the moment of revelation. Sure enough, a few minutes after she sat down, my boss picked up her phone and immediately saw the meme sticking out from behind it. A look of surprise and confusion briefly crossed her face before she started chuckling to herself. I could tell by her smile that she thought it was funny too, just not necessarily at the moment when she realized what had happened. Later in the day, as we were having a team meeting, my boss mentioned how much laughter had been brought into her workday and hinted about who might have left such an amusing note. It wasn't until after everyone else had left that she finally came over to my desk and asked if I was responsible for the prank. Feeling rather bold and unapologetic, I nodded and grinned widely while explaining it. To my pleasant surprise, instead of being upset or angry at me for playing such a small joke, my boss laughed heartily again and admitted that she needed more moments like this in her work life to remind herself not to take everything too seriously. From then on, we had an unspoken understanding to keep the office fun but professional. And so began my journey as part of this team with a little humor shared amongst us.