I took over a man's life.
I work in one of those irritating workplaces with a strong culture of banter and pranks. One chap in particular is particularly good at "e-mail rape" (sending e-mails from other people's computers) and the like, and was ripe for a fall for some time.

After a particularly boozy night out paid for by our pals in the media, said chap confessed to me in the lift at 9am that he had no memory of the previous night from about 9pm onwards.

And so it began. And not only did I behave childishly, so did a number of really quite senior and otherwise mature people from a wide number of ad agencies.

Chap started receiving angry and/or concerned e-mails about "his behaviour" the previous night, starting off gently, but as we got more carried away and the conspiracy spread, increasingly outlandish, sexual and violent in nature. - obviously all "blind copied" to an increasingly large and varied group.

Nobody was really in charge of this mass event, so nobody really stopped it, until about 5pm, by which time he was white as a sheet, and genuinely trying to decide which industry to depart to, as he was clearly toast in ours.

I slowly explained, steeling myself for a punch, but the poor chap was just so relieved he actually hugged me, despite my confession that I was the original instigator. Top man.
( prince-igor si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses, Wed 23 Sep 2009, 10:29, Reply)