100 Micro-Chuckles

Today marks the 100th episode of the WorkBytes Blogtoon! In show business, reaching the 100 episode mark means a tv show can go into syndication. But we would never do that to you! We’ll keep serving up fresh micro-chuckles daily.

Do you like to laugh? I’m guessing you said yes to this, if not you can skip this post. People like to laugh, but how often do you laugh at work? Seriously, how often? Go ahead and track how many times you laugh today. I’m guessing It’s not enough.

Why don’t we laugh more at work? Are we too busy? Does it give the impression that we’re not taking things seriously? Have you been scared into thinking that most of your humor is unacceptable?

I was told that making jokes was rude. Just to be clear, my jokes weren’t rude, just the simple fact that I was making jokes was seen as disrespectful. Why is that? When did fun become a bad thing?

There are many studies that document the benefits of laughing, everything from team bonding to creative solutions improves with laughter. People who laugh are more open to ideas, they are easier to work with. Teams that use humor are more innovative.

How can you increase the laughter in your workplace?

Share a joke. Yup open your meeting with a joke. Notice what happens during the rest of that meeting? Did it change the tone?