Humor has been called " Social Glue" because of its power to bond people to one another. People do gravitate to those who laugh easily and have a great sense of humor. Just watch the next time someone in your organization tells a funny story about something that happened to them. Not only are people eager to listen to a funny story but the shared laughter seems to bring the group closer together. When a supervisor tells a funny self-deprecating story to his/ her department the resulting laughter seems to promote a, " hey, we're all in this together" attitude.
When you consider what organizations spend to send their employees on team building seminars cultivating a climate of humor makes a lot of financial sense. It is the ultimate team builder.
2. BANISHES BOREDOM
Humor and laughter tend to banish boredom and boredom has been identified as a destructive reality within a workplace. Laughter, by its very definition, implies fun and fun is never boring. I once asked a member of my audience if he liked his job. He replied, " No I hate it, but I do enjoy coming to work. When I asked him why he said, " The people I work with are a lot of fun to be with and we have a lot of laughs." The most tedious of jobs can be enjoyable if humor, and fun are present.
3. HEALTH AND HAPPINESS
Health, happiness and humor go hand in hand. When you have a workplace where people laugh easily and often chances are that you are going to have a health and happy workplace. a place where employees like to be. This kind of positive environment is conducive to high morale and high productivity. The fact that humor cuts stress in half and enhances our immune system adds to its value.
4. FOSTERS FLEXIBILITY
People with a good sense of humor and a ready laugh tend to be more flexible. They usually take their job seriously but not themselves and therefore are more open and receptive to the ideas of others. People who take themselves too seriously are often difficult to work with and inflexible. The term uptight comes to mind. When a company's supervisors or managers have a great sense of humor and take delight in the humor of other staff members they give people the freedom to try and the freedom to fail. When this is present comfort levels, and creative achievement are high. People can soar to great heights of creativity when they know that they are free to fail. Wisdom helps us avoid mistakes and comes from making a ton of them.
5. RELAXATION
Laughter cuts stress levels in half thus lessening employee anxiety. If stress is a major cause of absenteeism among employees it is vital to reduce stress and in the process decrease a high rate of absentees. People don't want to stay away from a place that is fun and people who are fun to be with. When absentees are reduced you save money. Laughter also impacts positively on the bottom line when you consider that happy people tend to be more productive.
6. REDUCING CONFLICT
Earlier in this article I mentioned that all workplace problems are people problems and if you solve people problems you solve workplace problems. Well humor goes a long way in the solution of the inevitable conflicts that arises in human relationships. People that laugh together like one another. You don't laugh with people you don't like. When conflict does arise among people who like one another it is more easily handled. You might get angry at someone you like but odds are you won't stay angry long and in no time you will be back enjoying one another. One thing you can count on when employing a humor program and that is that you will have increase co-operation and mutual support among your staff.
7. INCREASED ENERGY
Humor increases the oxygen levels in our blood resulting in increased energy. What organization couldn't use a dose of increased employee energy at specific times throughout the day. To illustrate my point consider for a moment how tired you feel after a week of hard work on the job. You come home on a Friday night worn out. All you want is a quiet, restful weekend doing as little as possible.
Just as you walk through the door your significant other tells you that you have been invited to a party that evening. You immediately make it clear that you DON"T want to go. After being convinced that a party is just what you need you give in. At 1:00 a.m you return from the party. It was a lot of fun with a great deal of laughter and good company. You get into bed and you can't get to sleep. You are filled with energy and sleep is impossible. What happened to the fatigue that was plaguing you hours earlier?
CONCLUSION
When you consider workplace dis-ease and its negative impact on your business or organization you will be hard pressed to find a more effective, cost efficient solution than a program including humor, laughter, appreciation and praise. They fit together like hand and glove and are very simple to implement. All you need is a commitment from upper management and a few training sessions to teach the hows and whys of such a program. Once you have your people on board you will be able to see your workplace culture improve significantly.
Mike Moore is an international authority on humor in the workplace and humor and health. For 18 of Mike's original workplace cartoons FREE visit his website at
http://motivationalplus.com/cgi/a/t.cgi?begin
To enquirer about having Mike speak to your group visit http://www.mikemoorespeaks.com
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