Employees receive memo not to do any pranks on Monday

Mar 28, 2019 06:23 GMT  ·  By
Microsoft's new approach is likely to dictate a new trend in the tech industry
   Microsoft's new approach is likely to dictate a new trend in the tech industry

With April 1 just around the corner, everyone expects tech companies to come up with new pranks, just like it happens every year.

However, it looks like Microsoft is going to say pass to this year’s April Fools’ Day, as the company’s marketing chief is requesting employees to avoid any public-facing pranks this year.

The reason is as simple as it could be: not everyone likes such pranks, and according to the leaked memo, some of them actually do more harm than good.

“Sometimes the outcomes are amusing and sometimes they’re not. Either way, data tells us these stunts have limited positive impact and can actually result in unwanted news cycles,” Chris Capossela explained in the internal memo obtained by The Verge.

No pranks this year

Capossela goes on to request employees to forward the announcement to teams and internal partners, as he wants all Microsofties to stay away from external pranks that could reach customers.

“Considering the headwinds the tech industry is facing today, I’m asking all teams at Microsoft to not do any public-facing April Fools’ Day stunts. I appreciate that people may have devoted time and resources to these activities, but I believe we have more to lose than gain by attempting to be funny on this one day,” he says.

This is a more or less unexpected change at Microsoft, but at the same time, there’s a good chance that it could be an approach that would dictate a new trend in the tech industry. Other tech companies are very likely to follow in Microsoft’s footsteps, including the likes of Google.

Many of these tech firms loved April Fools’ Day pranks in the previous years, but some eventually turned into blunders they would’ve rather avoided, as it’s the case of the changes that Google made to the Gmail email service and which led to huge public backlash.