Humor Beings: Adding Punch(lines) to the Workplace

Considering that research indicates we lose our sense of humour sharply after the age of 23, and the average American worker is about 40 years old, it isn’t hard to do the math. Most of us have probably been leading humorless lives, filled with drudgery and toil for much of our working years.

A study also says that the average 4-year-old (who probably doesn’t understand much of the world) laughs about 300 times a day. And an average 40-year-old (who probably does understand a bit) takes about 75 days to laugh 300 times. That’s 4 laughs a day on average. And it’s entirely possible that all those laughs happen on holidays and weekends.

After all, work is serious business. What can possibly be funny about deadlines whooshing by like owls in a Harry Potter movie, a calendar with more conflicts than a human mind debating on pizza vs pasta, or targets being missed with as much certainty as Reggie Jackson striking out?

A commute with unruly drivers, honking horns, and rush-hour traffic. Endless, soul-sucking meetings, with no point except to test the strength of your eyelids in staying open. Hours of drudgery with PowerPoint, Excel, or other tools designed to take the joy out of human lives. How can anyone even think of humour in such situations, when one’s life is a Dilbert cartoon strip?

Research by Chris Roberts of the University of Missouri-Columbia claims that humor improves cohesiveness and communication among people. Another piece of research says that 91% of executives believe that a sense of humour is important for career advancement. Shouldn’t we take humour a bit more seriously then?

One of the common fears people have is that their humor might upset others. That’s a valid concern (unless one is a professional comedian or a politician). However, by following some simple steps, you can ensure that you turn an atmosphere of gravity into one of levity:

• Start with yourself: Make jokes about yourself and your leadership style to get people to drop some of their own defences. The idea is not to make you sound like Bozo the clown, but to just send a message that you do not take yourself too seriously.
• Be sensitive: In a global workforce, sensitive topics around age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or disabilities are usually best avoided. Unless you are Trevor Noah or Joe Rogan, avoid making fun of others to get a few laughs.
• Test, test, test: Much like a laboratory experiment, test your jokes (or what you consider as jokes) on a small selection of friends or family members who can give you honest feedback. No one’s likely to be laughing (to the bank or elsewhere) if your misplaced humour causes a dip in the bottomline.
• Keep up with the times: Use movie or pop culture references to be cool. That way, you can use content that others have already created (and not been vilified for), to be funny. (Also, be prepared for people wanting to spend work time binge watching Netflix to get your jokes.)

Humor at the workplace is no laughing matter for sure. With potential benefits for teamwork and camaraderie, and better business results, you might want to humor yourself and others as well. After all, Mark Twain called it mankind’s greatest blessing so why keep our workplaces un-blessed?