Leveraging Humor to Strengthen Workplace Relationships

Leveraging Leveraging Humor Humor

TO STRENGTHEN WORKPLACE RELATIONSHIPS

By ASHLEY DUGGER

Integrating humor, even in small ways, can have positive implications on organizational culture, employee morale and engagement, and stress reduction. All of this can add up to even greater long-term benefits, such as increased retention and productivity.

In the 2021 bestselling book Humor, Seriously: Why Humor is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life, authors Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas discuss how using humor at work can actually strengthen workplace relationships and have a ripple effect. Their research showed that people who use humor at work are seen by their coworkers as trustworthy, confident, stronger leaders. They also found that humor played a role in collective resiliency when (inevitably) there are stressful and challenging times at work.

When we take the time to find the humor in our day-to-day work situations, especially in a field that can be incredibly challenging emotionally, it doesn’t mean we give up our credibility as HR professionals. Of course, humor will not always be appropriate in every situation, and this is where individual judgement comes in.

Haven’t previously considered a career in standup comedy? Not to worry, you won’t need to take it that far to leverage humor at work for positive impacts! Starting small can have a considerable effect on your workplace relationships and organizational culture. Humor should never be at someone else’s expense. It should go without saying that humor that could be considered discriminatory, harassing, or offensive should never be utilized. If you feel your humor attempt could fall into the grey area of being acceptable, it is probably best to waive your humor rights on that effort and move on to something else!

However, sometimes the fear of having our humor “fail” can prevent us from starting to practice using humor at work at all. Yes, you have to practice – like any muscle, you have to exercise your humor muscles to strengthen them! Aaker and Bagdonas note in Humor, Seriously that humor fails are inevitable. But the authors also note in the book that we cannot get caught in the “shame spiral” when we experience humor fails (or any other mistakes we make at work), and we have to allow ourselves the grace to move forward.

So how do you start using humor? Well, you don’t have to tell jokes in front of a group of coworkers. Simply trying to smile more during interactions with colleagues, laughing at others’ jokes, or adding a funny line to your professional bio or out of office message can go a long way in starting to build stronger rapport with your coworkers, and pave the way for them to feel more comfortable interacting with you during difficult times. Perhaps you tell a funny story that happened to you to relate to a conversation with coworkers. Maybe the meetings you host become legendary for their fun ice breakers that kick off the meetings or are widely known as a time and place where laughter is not only acceptable but encouraged! I remember one meeting where our team got into a meme war in the chat, and we still laugh about that experience years later. Self-deprecating humor can also be a comfortable place to begin, but make sure you are not putting yourself down instead of finding the humor in the experience you are sharing.

As we get comfortable using humor at work, hopefully those around us will also start to integrate humor in their daily interactions. I always tell my teammates – when I get to the point where I can’t laugh about it, I know it is time to step away from the situation for a bit and regroup. We’ve started to recognize that when we can’t find humor in hard times, we each need a bit more support and encouragement than usual and will reach out to one another to offer those things to our teammates.

The best compliment I’ve ever received as an HR professional came from a former colleague who told me, “You’ve changed my perception of HR forever.” I’d taken the time to get to know them personally over the years and found ways to bring laughter to our conversations regularly. Their previous experience with HR resembled visits to the principal’s office (their words, not mine!). Employees then felt more comfortable coming to me as an HR professional when they encountered difficult situations, because we had built up a mutual trust and strong rapport from our prior interactions and shared laughter. Integrating humor not only made my work more enjoyable, but my efforts to find the humor in hard times translated to those around me.

Dr. Ashley Dugger, WGU Program Chair