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45UMAN   ESOURCES • October 2012

September 2012 •  China FocusLeisure

“ An employee who urgently neededa few days off was scared to ask

his boss for leave. He decided to act

crazy and hung upside down on the

ceiling while making funny noises

pretending to be a light bulb.

 When his boss came into the office

and saw him, he asked: “What are you

doing?”

The employee replied: “I’m a light

bulb.”

“You are clearly stressed out. Take acouple of days’ leave,” answered the

boss.

 As the employee was leaving the

office, his co-worker followed him.

The boss said: “And where do you

think you’re going?”

She said, “I’m going home too, I

can’t work in the dark.”

Didn’t that joke make you smile?

Okay, perhaps you groaned. In any

event – and this is the real point – Ibet you wanted to read it.

Employers like amusingemployees

“Humour, [according to] psychologists,

is a playful frame of mind that gives

individual a feeling of well-being,

better thinking skills and pain relief,”

explains Dr Yue Xiaodong, Associate

Professor at the Department of

• Laughter is a remedy and not just for the workplace: it is therapeutic and can improve work

dynamics and team building.

•  An employee’s sense of humour is important for fitting into the company’s corporate culture.

• Humour is associated with positive peer nominations and annual bonus incentive scores:

it can help propel an employee up the corporate ladder.

By Kamilia Lahrichi

The Power of Humourin the Workplace

REUTERS/Jo Yong hak

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46  UMAN   ESOURCES • October 2012

Leisure

 Applied Social Studies of the City

University of Hong Kong. Think about

this definition. It already tells you how

much humour can help in the office. It

can improve employees’ psychological

 well-being, strengthen their ability

to cope with stress, improve their

interaction with co-workers, unleash

their creativity and foster an inclusive

 work environment. There is thus

no doubt that humour should be

encouraged in the workplace by HR

professionals: why wouldn’t you hire

someone who gets the job done and

makes you laugh?

 According to a 2012 survey

released by Accountemps, a companyspecialised in staffing services, 79%

of Chief Financial Officers (CFO)

interviewed said that an employee’s

sense of humour is important for fitting

into the company’s corporate culture.

The survey polled more than 1,400

CFOs in the US. “All work and no play

can erode employee morale,” says Max

Messmer, Chairman of Accountemps.

 When it comes to recruiting talent, “job

candidates should let their personality

shine when meeting prospective

employers. The interview is no place

for a stand-up comedy routine, but it is

the right time to show hiring managers

 you are approachable and will be easy

to work with,” he adds.

HR professionals should encourage

managers to recognise that a good

sense of humour does not mean

neglecting work; actually a smile canre-invigorate and if anything make us

more efficient, especially when dealing

 with dull, non-challenging or repetitive

tasks.

Humour improves officecommunication and teambuilding

 A good sense of humour improves

communication between employees.

Communication can be “usually

facilitate[d] when humour is used with

good intention. If humour is meant

to belittle others, the victim [will] be

hurt while others are enjoying the

humorous circumstance,” explains

Professor Maria Pik-Yuk Chik,

 Associate Professor in the Department

of Education Studies of the Hong

Kong Baptist University and author of

 various papers on humour.

Humour can facilitate

communication between HR

professionals and employees. It is

sometimes the best way to handle

a difficult situation. It can be used

to give an insight into a businesssituation that dry conversation is

unable to convey. As communication

plays a crucial role in leadership

effectiveness, communicating

messages with a touch of humour

can help HR professionals convey

efficiently the company’s vision and

advance corporate goals.

 Also, when an employee has just

joined a team, humour can help “break

the ice” and integrate him/her into the

team. Humour can motivate a team by

diffusing tensions. Positive language,

such as friendly humour, contributes

to reducing defensiveness and

portraying the speaker as credible and

respectable. Laughing together means

that sharing and having something in

common.

 Workplace humour boostsproductivity 

Humour works wonders on

productivity as well. Because it

alleviates negativism, humour enables

How to improve employees’ sense of humour?

To encourage office banter, the following may help:

1)  Be positive. Sharing a light-hearted article or picture and discussing a funny

episode of a TV show are ways to lighten up the atmosphere.

2) Make regular positive comments. “You look great today!” could be a friendly

comment to address to a co-worker.

3) Smile. Giving a grin is contagious and secretes happy healing hormones such as

ecstatic endorphins.

4) Be willing to make jokes about yourself without going too far. For example,

 you can mention your terrible handwriting. “Don’t fear losing face,” suggests Dr

 Yue.

5) Give your staff nicknames that are not offending. It enables them to be seen

as individuals rather than employees only.

6) Recognise employees’ personal milestones by awarding titles like “the

funniest employee of the month.”

7) Integrate humour in various aspects of the workplace. For instance,

personalise office calendars with funny pictures and humorous quotes (some

 websites do that) such as:

Old accountants never die, they just lose their balance.

Old bankers never die, they just lose interest.

Old printers never die, they’re just not the type.

Old lawyers never die, they just lose their appeal.

Old bosses never die, much as you want them to.

8) Most importantly, practise – although this sounds counter-intuitive – humour

every day for a few minutes.

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47UMAN   ESOURCES • October 2012

September 2012 •  China FocusLeisure

Don’ts: The limits of humour 

1) Don’t  make unprofessional, offensive or alienating jokes: stay away by all means  

from distasteful jokes about a co-worker’s gender, ethnicity, religion, personal

appearance or political orientation.

2) Don’t  use sarcasm and gossiping to belittle, mock or attack an employee. This will

only create a hostile work environment and trigger nasty office politics.

3) Don’t  forward jokes via e-mails because humour is subjective. In addition,

electronic communication does not always reflect the sender’s intentions and tone.

4) Don’t  make jokes when it is not the right time. ”Particularly under very solemn

or extreme circumstances when nobody is ready to take the unexpected influx of

humorous remarks,” says Professor Chik.

teams to be more effective in rising

to challenges. According to Professor

Chik, humour creates a positive

atmosphere at work that is conducive

to productivity because it:

• uplifts and refreshes the mind from

stagnant to dynamic thinking;

• enhances positive emotional feelings

to produce more satisfying work

relations among staff and between

employer and employees; and

• promotes better physical, cognitive

and emotional personal well-being.

Humour can even help propel

an employee up the corporate

ladder because it “is an asset to gain

recognition and is sensed as a sign of

maturity and confidence,” she says.

Humour works in a similar way

for HR professionals and business

leaders. According to a Hay Group

 working paper titled “Just a Joke:

Predicting Executives’ Performance

from Spontaneous Humour during

 Job Interview”, executives with a

sense of humour perform better

than those who are not deemed

funny. The survey demonstrates that

humour is associated with positive

peer nominations and annual bonus

incentive scores. Executives who met

their annual goals and increased their

monetary bonuses used more humour

(positive, self-disparaging, incongruity)

to compliment their co-workers, help

them feel better and create warmth and

closeness at work, than less successful

executives. The report also suggests

that humour may result in superior

performance because a funny manager

is likely to have superior interpersonal

and communication skills.

Understanding culturalapproaches to humour 

In multi-cultural workplaces, it

is critical that HR professionals

understand the different cultural

approaches to humour. “Humour is

definitely cultural. What distinguishes

Chinese culture is its emphasis on a

smile of the mind instead of a smile of

the belly,” underlines Dr Yue, author

of  On Psychology of Humour . This

remark, which is attributed to Lin

 Yu-tang (林語堂), a Chinese writer

 who advocated humour, points out

that a heartfelt smile might not always

translate into a physical smile in some

cultures.

“In the US, there is almost one-to-

one relationship to humour, ie being

humorous means to be creative and

 vice versa. Appreciation of incongruity

of things is the foundation of humour.

But in Chinese culture, the relationship

is not so clear as Chinese people are

pretty ambivalent about humour,”

compares Dr Yue. Similarly, Japanese

are not accustomed to smiling. This

cultural characteristic even causes them

to lose business opportunities.

Thus, HR professionals have to

foster a work environment where

people have fun. This is not always

easy. They may have to convince

managers that humour can be

constructive and make sure that their

staff has positive attitudes towards

fun. HR professionals also have to

explicitly give employees permission

to be funny at work, otherwise,

most of them will not cross the line.

During meetings for example, they

could encourage co-workers to share

funny work-related anecdotes. By

the same token, HR professionals are

responsible for putting an end to theconversation.

Conclusion

Humour is a powerful tool that

contributes to an organisation’s

success. On top of its health benefits,

it is a creative business management

strategy that is effective and does

not cost a dime to HR professionals.

 Adding some spice to the workplace

is tremendous to recruiting and

retaining skilled employees and

creating a productive workplace.

It enables a workforce to reach

corporate targets, achieve willing

compliance, foster collegiality and

encourage team-building.

Now since you’ve been very

patient, Dr Yue shared with  Human

 Resources  his favourite joke:

“At the opening of a new play, [Irish

playwright] George Bernard Shaw

sent two tickets to [British statesman]

 Winston Churchill. Shaw wrote on

the letter, ‘Here is a ticket for you and

 your friend—if you have one.’

Churchill sent back the tickets with

a message for Shaw. ‘I can’t attend on

the opening night, but I would love to

go to the second performance—if you

have one.’”