For decades now, the Reader’s Digest publication has included a feature called, “Laughter is the Best Medicine.” Although it might not qualify as the best medication available, it’s certainly priced right. And yes, benefits do exist. Laughter has been shown to strengthen immune systems, reduce stress hormones and improve blood vessel function.
Granted, in stressful jobs where life and death decisions are made, humor must be used carefully. However, studies show humor goes a long way toward reducing workplace tension. Jeff Justice, a motivational humorist, says the ability to take your job seriously but yourself lightly goes a long way in the battle against stress. It doesn’t mean telling jokes all the time, but rather lightening up.
Research has revealed that workplaces with too much negativity or constant nose-to-the-grindstone thinking experience higher than normal turnover and more people taking sick days. Justice suggests that such workplaces could benefit from developing a lighter tone. He says, “A sense of humor can be used for stress reduction, problem solving, team building and improving communications.”
Humor has also been shown to increase employee engagement and productivity. Scott Friedman, a popular speaker and author on workplace issues, says “Humor creates an instant bond.” He says humor removes negative, non-productive feelings and creates a fresh new approach to situations. According to Friedman, the idea is to laugh about a situation while it’s happening because it keeps oxygen flowing to the brain, and that helps people think more clearly.
I happen to agree with Friedman. Even in stressful situations where humor expressed outwardly would be inappropriate, I’ve found I can deal with the situation better if I think of something humorous and keep it to myself.
Keeping humor balanced
In many situations, it can be wise to think of humor as a type of salt. A little can be good; too much can be bad. Also, when humor is used matters much. Sometimes a witty comment would be phenomenally hilarious, but also quite inappropriate.
As the English poet Samuel Butler once said, “It is tact that is golden, not silence.”
Butler’s admonition is important, because too much humor becomes a burden. One small business owner I know had an employee who worked hard to insert a joke or a pun into every situation. At times his humor was appropriate, but it seemed he worked harder at trying to be funny than he did doing his job.
Eventually his excessive humor distracted the other employees from being productive. Whenever they interacted with him, they felt they were wasting time dealing with his puns and wisecracks. It was clearly too much of a good thing.
Tips for workplace humor
Dr. Joni Johnston, the founder and CEO of the consulting firm Work Relationships, offers a few tips for using humor at work:
- Pay attention to clues about your co-worker’s mood
- Trust your intuition
- Take yourself lightly
- Use humor as the icing, not the cake
- Avoid playful insults
Johnston says that humor must be used at the right time, in appropriate amounts, and shouldn’t make fun of an individual. The idea is to always make light of the situation – never a person.
A good example of using humor to make light of a situation is offered by Jeff Justice. He tells the story about a female employee who grew tired of her boss continually rejecting her budget – always sending it back and telling her it needed to be smaller. When she finally got her budget down to absolute bare bones, he still rejected it. Knowing that she couldn’t make it any smaller and still do the work required of her, she took her paperwork over to the copy machine and literally reduced her budget to the size of a postage stamp. When she took it back to her boss they both had a good laugh and her boss approved her budget.
Workplaces benefit a lot when managers use humor, because it’s managers and leaders who set the tone for any workplace. In fact, Dwight Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in World War II and two-term president of the United States once said, “A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.”
My guess is that if you think back over your career, you probably enjoyed working for managers who employed a light, balanced sense of humor.
Humor’s Role in Training
Humor also has much value in employee training, as the very act of laughing is usually a sign of learning. Think about it: We laugh when we “get” a joke – when we are connecting two or more pieces of information in a new, unique way. But once that connection is made, we don’t laugh anymore because we’ve already learned – we already “got the joke.”
Yet for all of its benefits, it bears repeating that the use of humor must be balanced. And let me add that those in positions of authority must exercise extra caution to avoid offending people.
For those who remain skeptical about the value of humor in the workplace, let me close by reviewing just a few of the workplace benefits that have been validated through research. Using humor at work:
- improves decision-making and aids in creative problem-solving
- reduces absenteeism, increases engagement and improves productivity
- diffuses conflict, builds trust and strengthens teamwork
So, here’s my challenge: Identify any issue in the above list and then determine one thing you can do differently to improve that area through an increase in workplace humor.
It’s kind of like what Jeff Justice says: “He who laughs – lasts!” •
Daniel Bobinski, who has a doctorate in theology, is a best-selling author and a popular speaker at conferences and retreats. For more than 30 years he’s been working with teams and individuals (1:1 coaching) to help them achieve excellence. He was also teaching Emotional Intelligence since before it was a thing. Reach him by email at DanielBobinski@protonmail.com or 208-649-6400.
