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I jokingly told my manager "I quit" via email (it was longer than that) as an April Fools joke. We get along pretty well normally.

Well, it seems my joke was taken a bit too seriously as I just got an automated email from HR with checkout procedures and an invite to a few "checkout" meetings later this week as well. My company has also been letting a lot of people go recently so I am worried this is an excuse to have that happen to me.

I can see my manager responding in a like fashion but the HR communication worries me. He is also on vacation this week so I cannot ask him directly (which would be ideal).

  • How can I determine if I am actually being fired or my boss is just playing along?
enderland
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    I guess you didn't follow up with an email saying "Just kidding! April Fool's!" I guess you could try to send that now, or slip it in during the interview. Also, maybe start updating your resume, just in case they aren't kidding. – FrustratedWithFormsDesigner Apr 01 '13 at 14:19
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    Wait a minute... if your manager is on vacation, who told HR? – FrustratedWithFormsDesigner Apr 01 '13 at 14:22
  • @FrustratedWithFormsDesigner now you understand why I'm worried. – enderland Apr 01 '13 at 14:23
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    If you got an automated email from HR, that would imply to me that they have been informed and have started the "terminate employment" process within their systems. If HR is "playing along" that's a pretty serious level of commitment to the prank. You need to speak to your boss ASAP. – alroc Apr 01 '13 at 14:27
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    @alroc - I dunno about that, I've never seen an HR department with a sense of humor. – James Adam Apr 01 '13 at 15:19
  • Joke's on you I suppose XD Boss: 'April Fools' he says... 'You're a fool in April' I'll reply – Anthony Miller Apr 01 '13 at 15:30
  • Does he have an administrative assistant? Perhaps that person forwarded the email to HR. – mkennedy Apr 01 '13 at 17:32
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    I think you should be fired for even entertaining the possibility that this would be an amusing april fools day joke. – Dunk Apr 01 '13 at 17:45
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    The only way this joke gets really funny is if you commit to it. I say sell it to the hilt including with HR. Maybe you can get to give you a bump in pay! – IDrinkandIKnowThings Apr 01 '13 at 17:53
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    Am I the only person wondering if the joke is on enderland/enderland's boss, or everyone reading the question on workplace.se? – Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight Apr 01 '13 at 18:31
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    The next step is obviously to pretend you're planning to burn the building down. Keep the laughs rolling! – Nathan Long Apr 01 '13 at 18:41
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    @NathanLong should I burn down just the building or the entire complex? I'm not really sure how to interpret your suggestion. – enderland Apr 01 '13 at 20:53
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    I can't tell if this post is the joke, or the people pretending to believe that you actually did this are the ones joking. – beth Apr 01 '13 at 23:37
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    -1: It's now April 2nd. April Fools is long gone, you're the fool for carrying on, your grasp of time is not so hot, you're the fool and I am not! – deworde Apr 02 '13 at 09:47
  • so you were fired for having a bad taste in humour. Sometimes you can fight such a reason, but in this case your prior termination notice I'm afraid makes that rather unlikely to succeed. Best start looking for other employment. – jwenting Apr 02 '13 at 11:50

3 Answers3

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The best plan of attack will be to slap your boss. Slapping people at work is pretty common and will help make it more clear you were only joking.

If this doesn't work, sleeping with your boss's wife is also an effective way to make it clear you were only joking.

Failing that, you should probably just quit your job - no one wants to work with a bunch of people who cannot take a joke. This is likely to make it hard for you to get a new job. Fortunately you can just make up your new resume. This will make is significantly easier to find a new job if they do not know to call your last one for a reference.

Make sure to watch out for an employee pushing you in front of a bus.

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enderland
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Call your boss immediately and indicate in no uncertain terms that the email was a joke (an incredibly bad idea, by the way), and you're concerned that it was taken seriously. The risk of being a sucker and falling for his automated HR email prank is much less disastrous than actually losing your job over a poorly thought out joke.

huntmaster
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There's no need to take action. Just carry on doing your job as well as you can. If your boss is playing along with your "joke," nothing will happen.

Mind you, if at some point in the future your pay stops being processed, you can be certain that they have "fixed the glitch" and you actually were terminated. Please be advised that if you resigned in writing, you were not fired. Your prank is in much the same taste as having a lawyer deliver divorce papers on April 1st.

Reg Braithwaite
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