Everything, Everything

Manchester-based law firm Peninsula says that when jokes go wrong - or the victim does not see the funny side - it is often the employer who ends up in court. The company surveyed more than 800 workers in a number of industries across the UK and found that most had taken part in a practical joke against a colleague.

Two thirds of those surveyed said they did not think about the repercussions of the joke, even though most people questioned admitted they felt bullied if they were on the receiving end. Among the examples it gave of jokes that can actually be construed as bullying were:

• Loosening the top of a salt cellar so a colleague's lunch is covered in salt.
• Spiking a teatotaller's soft drink with alcohol.
• Sticking a sign on someone's back saying 'kick me' or 'slap me'.
• A worker locked in a stockroom with the lights switched off.
• A worker who was afraid of spiders finding them planted in his desk.

The salt thing is funny, annoying, but funny, and I can't think of anyone here that I've seen using salt. I don't even know where they keep the salt. Maybe we don't have any. A sign on someone's back is a laugh, it's not like people actually kick them, and - in the right context - can actually be a bonding action that shows you've been accepted as part of the team. But I do think slipping alcohol into a teatotaller's soft drink is completely unacceptable. It's their choice not to drink alcohol. Locking someone in a stockroom (for more than a few seconds) isn't right either. The spider thing is a grey area, I wouldn't do it, and I wouldn't be too happy if people did it to me, but I'd probably see the funny side after a while. Just as long as they were one off jokes and not part of a string of events that felt like a targeted bullying campaign.