April Fool's Joke

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

My preloader decided he was going to play an April Fool's joke on one of the other drivers he loads for. Josh loads 3 pkgs cars and does an awesome job which gives him the time to pull pranks like this. He decided he was going to load everything in sequence but on the wrong shelves. He loaded the 1000 and 5000 in the 3000 and 7000, 2000 and 6000 in the 4000 and 8000 and he reversed the floor locations. He chose this driver because he thought that he had a sense of humor--he didn't and took the prank the wrong way, interrupting the center manager while he was on a conference call to say that he would be over 9.5 because of the prank. Josh was able to get the pkg car resorted and all of his cars closed out just as we hit the belt.

Did any of you pull or were the victim of an April Fool's joke?

 

[trplnkl]

nope and nope.
If Josh had chosen you, I bet you would not have yuked it up either. I know I wouldn't have.

 

[Jones]

In my case it would have been a nice April Fool's joke if the loader had put everything on the right shelves for a change...

 

[over9five]

...he didn't and took the prank the wrong way, interrupting the center manager while he was on a conference call to say that he would be over 9.5 because of the prank.

What a jerk that driver is. Hope you told him, Upstate! I hate people who can't have a little fun at work.

Did any of you pull or were the victim of an April Fool's joke?

Forgot it was April Fools Day. No one even mentioned it.

In my case it would have been a nice April Fool's joke if the loader had put everything on the right shelves for a change...

Ha! That's just sad!!!!

 

[raceanoncr]

I've said it before and will continue to say it to ANYBODY!:

Don't prank me at work or ABOUT my work! This package car work is too intense and difficult without making it worse, 04/01 or not. In my case, feeders involves much more equipment and expense, along with the company's reasonable or unreasonable expectations or rules, that I don't want anybody messing wif me when I'm pre/post-tripping or driving.

You may be a good friend or think I can take a joke, which I can most of the time but don't test it at work. Sorry.

 

[dilligaf]

I've said it before and will continue to say it to ANYBODY!:

Don't prank me at work or ABOUT my work! This package car work is too intense and difficult without making it worse, 04/01 or not. In my case, feeders involves much more equipment and expense, along with the company's reasonable or unreasonable expectations or rules, that I don't want anybody messing wif me when I'm pre/post-tripping or driving.

You may be a good friend or think I can take a joke, which I can most of the time but don't test it at work. Sorry.

I have to agree with you Race and Trpl. Work is not the place for practical jokes. At least not in our work environment. I would not have seen any humor in having my shelves switched around either.

 

[trplnkl]

I can take a joke, but some things are just too serious to involve a prank. Most loads I see you couldn't deliver if your 1000 section is loaded in the 5000 shelf. There are many other ways to pull a joke without creating extra work for anyone. Even if it is yourself.

 

[freeloader]

I've said it before and will continue to say it to ANYBODY!:

Don't prank me at work or ABOUT my work! This package car work is too intense and difficult without making it worse, 04/01 or not. In my case, feeders involves much more equipment and expense, along with the company's reasonable or unreasonable expectations or rules, that I don't want anybody messing wif me when I'm pre/post-tripping or driving.

You may be a good friend or think I can take a joke, which I can most of the time but don't test it at work. Sorry.

You guys realize you are completely setting yourselves up for a future prank, right?

 

[UPSERNOJ]

I have a 14 year old daughter who does absolutely nothing to help around the house. Her room is always a mess. She has been on punishment, no cell phone or Ipod for the last two weeks. She calls me at work when she got home from school and asked me for her phone and ipod back. I told her if she cleaned her room, polished the furniture and vacuumed the rugs, that she could have her stuff back. When I got home, she did everything I asked. When she asked me for her stuff, I said "April Fools!"....I almost lost my hearing from all her ranting and raving.

 

[Bubblehead]

That prank would have been worth about 2 hours of extra overtime if it occured in my package car.
I never get mad.
I get paid.

 

[kingOFchester]

I would do as I have always done.....rolled with the punches and smile. Gone thru a ton of crap in my life. Stuff far far far more detrimental then a truck loaded in reverse. I guess its all about perspective.

 

[sano]

Looking a bit deeper.
While I understand (and agree) that practical jokes in the workplace can get out of hand in a hurry, I also think it may be significant that this was his preloader. Would the driver have taken it better if another driver had played the joke?
I didn't understand the driver/preloader dynamic till i saw it from the other side when i was driver helping last peak.

One of the frustrations, maybe even one of the largest frustrations, of the driver job is looking for packages. With the size of the load that some of these package cars go out with there will be some searching involved.
Over peak I was loading one car that was mostly residential and was literally stacked to the ceiling front to back. There was not much that I as a preloader could do other than try to keep everything close to where it belonged.

This creates a situation where all day long the driver is fighting with his preloader in his mind. The driver I helped over peak would say "this loader is killing me" every day. I would submit that the issue may be more of a UPS issue than a loader issue, but the loader is easy to blame.

Let me hasten to say that I am not making excuses for bad loaders, but if the mission is to put 10 gallons in a 5 gallon bucket we may be set up to fail.


I have no idea how I got into this rant from an April fools joke...

 

[Tiny Panda]

Yeah the British Government put fuel duty up but sadly it wasnt an April Fool

 

[raceanoncr]

You guys realize you are completely setting yourselves up for a future prank, right?

OK, if that's the case, then I just might have to drop my oath I took when I joined the Teamsters, "I will not knowlingly harm another Teamster 'brother' ". You know what I mean?

 

[New Englander]

I've said it before and will continue to say it to ANYBODY!:

Don't prank me at work or ABOUT my work! This package car work is too intense and difficult without making it worse, 04/01 or not. In my case, feeders involves much more equipment and expense, along with the company's reasonable or unreasonable expectations or rules, that I don't want anybody messing wif me when I'm pre/post-tripping or driving.

You may be a good friend or think I can take a joke, which I can most of the time but don't test it at work. Sorry.

It's difficult driving to a location, selecting the right package and either getting a signature or releasing it?

 

[trplnkl]

It's difficult driving to a location, selecting the right package and either getting a signature or releasing it?

That is IF you can FIND the right package.

 

[stevetheupsguy]

I would do as I have always done.....rolled with the punches and smile. Gone thru a ton of crap in my life. Stuff far far far more detrimental then a truck loaded in reverse. I guess its all about perspective.

I agree.

One day out of the year, isn't gonna kill anyone. You guys need to lighten up, or I'll bring Josh over to your center. BTW, my loader's name is Josh as well, and I'm not joshing.

 

[Catatonic]

Did any of you pull or were the victim of an April Fool's joke?

Just the annual April 1 joke ... my 36th wedding anniversary.

 

[Cementups]

I personally think that was a pretty amusing practical joke. I may have been a little bent about it at first, but in the long run after i got used to it, I would have laughed about for sure. pretty funny stuff.

Give Josh a pat on the back for me.

 

[brownmonster]

My preloader decided he was going to play an April Fool's joke on one of the other drivers he loads for. Josh loads 3 pkgs cars and does an awesome job which gives him the time to pull pranks like this. He decided he was going to load everything in sequence but on the wrong shelves. He loaded the 1000 and 5000 in the 3000 and 7000, 2000 and 6000 in the 4000 and 8000 and he reversed the floor locations. He chose this driver because he thought that he had a sense of humor--he didn't and took the prank the wrong way, interrupting the center manager while he was on a conference call to say that he would be over 9.5 because of the prank. Josh was able to get the pkg car resorted and all of his cars closed out just as we hit the belt.

Did any of you pull or were the victim of an April Fool's joke?

Had the same thing happen to me 3 years ago. I think it was called PAS. Turned my load upside down and has been that way ever since.