WORKPLACE SPECIAL...Humour @work no LAUGHING matter

Humour @work no LAUGHING matter  Laughter is the best medicine, right? Corporate humourists and experts discuss the drama surrounding office humour HUMOUR,TAKE IT SERIOUSLY • Studies find that people tend to respect people more who laugh at themselves. It also helps leaders come across as more authentic and real, and therefore, helps build trust at work. One simple activity to do is to have a ‘bonehead award’ or ‘blooper award’ as a prize once a month for whoever committed the biggest ‘oops’. Another key is to practice what I’d call ‘relevant humour’ (humour that is linked to your company’s brand and style and tied to your particular profession or trade). Celebrating an offbeat, fun theme day once a month is a simple, fun way to keep humour alive. For example, ‘High-Five Day’ where everyone highfives each other; ‘Monochromatic Day’ when  HUMOUR,TAKE IT SERIOUSLY • IT’S easier to classify humour into four distinct categories (as defined by RA Martin). They are: 1) affiliative humour (amusing others as a way to facilitate relationships); 2) self-enhancing humour (finding amusement in life’s hardships and staying positive); 3) self-defeating humour (saying funny things at one’s own expense); 4) aggressive humour (disparaging others as a way of manipulating them). everyone dresses up in black and/or white, or ‘Third Person Thursdays’ where everyone talks about themselves in the third person are workable plans. THAT’S NOT FUNNY… • People need to be encouraged to practice safe humour’: humour that breaks barriers rather than builds them; humour that helps spark ideas rather than laughs at them; humour that builds rather than discourages trust are good examples. Humour can be sometimes misused when dealing with international customers. Also, it’s very difficult to communicate humour over e-mail, and often messages can be misinterpreted because people cannot see the sender’s smiling face to indicate they were saying something in light jest. THAT’S NOT FUNNY… • HUMOUR becomes inappropriate for one of three reasons: 1) inappropriate subject matter (read: race, religion, sex, drugs, etc); 2) inappropriate target (if the joke has a target that isn’t yourself); 3) inappropriate time (if you have just announced massive lay-offs, the audience is in no mood for jokes). Humour is both, subjective and circumstantial. Also, your attempt might ‘fall flat’ (aka the audience doesn't laugh or get it). Serious talk INDIA INC EXECUTIVES DISCUSS THEIR INTERPRETATIONS OF OFFICE HUMOUR: Ratish Jha, HEAD HR,RAYCHEM RPG:     SOME form of mild humour in meetings can keep people attentive and reduce boredom, but too much of it can take the seriousness off the agenda. At any time, humour cannot be directed to ridicule, intimidate, alienate, patronise, degrade, belittle, embarrass or offend a person or organisation. The safest is to humour oneself. It helps reduce stress, cope with failures and offer a chance to step back/step out of a situation. Offensive jokes should be treated with zero tolerance. In some countries, they can attract legal suits. Mark Driscoll, LEADER HUMAN CAPITAL,PWC INDIA:     Places of work are now marked by a significant presence of Gen Y characterised by a good deal of non-formal modes of communication and humour. Organisations need to be receptive to this more than ever before. There is a fine line between humour and offensive behaviour and one needs to be mindful of not crossing these lines at work. Veena Kotian Danny, DEPUTY GM - HR,R K SWAMY HANSA GROUP. Once, while doing exit interviews, we realised that one of the reasons for the exits was a supervisor who would crack personal jokes or be very sarcastic under the pretext of being funny. A sarcastic manager who tries to cover up sarcasm as humour can actually trigger attrition in the team. A person who is forever joking and wants to be the centre of attention all the time can be a deterrent. Viren Naidu Viren Naidu TAS 130130