You go girl! Life is serious enough, without us as indivuals making it worse by not having a laugh now and then. Laughing certainly does help lighten the load, especially if all laugh together rather than at one another.

Regards
Nikki


Tessa Silberbauer

15 November 2006 at 11h15

Nobody ever died of laughter. That is according to Max Beerbohm, an English parodist and caricaturist whose works were popular in the early 20th century. That's certainly still true these days. At work and in leisure, laughter remains one of the most essential, priceless and most naturally healing things one can do.

Work is a serious commitment on which much of our personal security rests. But serious does not mean you have to be soulless. Any intelligent human resources practitioner cringes at all the lifestyle advertisements depicting work as a soulless, dreary, dismal place of boredom and frustration. But the image remains: business is business and never mix business with pleasure.

That is the last mistake you want to make. New boundaries must be set and held. If you're on holiday it's generally a bad idea to take your work with you. Romantic affairs at the office tend to complicate work horribly, and can pull the entire office (or factory) into opposing factions if they go wrong. A person who cannot laugh at their mistakes has lost more than perspective - he or she will probably be unable to step back enough to learn from a mistake, and is, therefore, likely to repeat it in the future. Such a person is also likely to risk being unable to identify the small mistakes from the big ones, and will, therefore, be unable to take action to prevent a mistake becoming a disaster.

A team that cannot laugh together is unlikely to build or maintain relationships of trust. There are other important reasons to encourage fun at work. Laughter restores energy better than stimulants like caffeine, with no side-effects. It stimulates our bodies to release restorative hormones and rejuvenates the body's natural healing process.

This enables the team to build stamina and work more effectively. Laughter vents tension better than any rant. It allows us to drop our personal guard and accept each other and ourselves. No one is perfect, and laughter helps to remind us of that fact, as well as reminding us what mistakes to avoid repeating in the future. It makes the workplace a pleasant place for everyone.

So far, I have not been the best at choosing and telling jokes, or even at choosing the right time to tell a joke. More often than not, my attempts fall flat. But I'm learning, and I get a better response than I used to, simply because I still try. But while I'm learning, I'm also listening to and appreciating others' stories and laughing with them. Of course there are appropriate and inappropriate times to lighten the mood. An irate customer will be offended if you try to turn their valid complaint into a joke without resolving it first. A crisis meeting is also usually a bad time. But once the decisions have been made, or while they're being implemented, it is probably a good idea to say something to lighten the mood. It takes trial and error to learn how to do this effectively.

Also, I find it important to avoid jokes about violence, prejudice and other serious crimes against people. I tend to see them as nothing more than an attempt by people too lazy to develop good taste. The work atmosphere is not a choice between crude vulgarity and stilted formality. There are many shades and degrees between the two extremes. Maybe it is time to implement your personal employee wellness programme and contribute to a more pleasant atmosphere, even if it is only allowing others to enjoy their workspace jokes.

Tessa Silberbauer is a Joahnnesburg-based life management trainer. For information, corporate training or private consulting, contact her on 083 310 0955 or livingskills@webmail.co.za