How to Use Humor in the Workplace

Edited by Iholland95, Felixa, BR, Chris and 1 other

Using humor in the workplace can be an ideal way to relieve stress, improve morale, and build stronger relationships and team camaraderie between co-workers. Although humor is often encouraged within companies and businesses, there are ways to use humor that will demonstrate your ability to maintain professionalism in the office no matter what the situation. Continue reading this article to learn how you can use humor in the workplace tastefully to lighten stressful situations without offending your co-workers.

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   Apply humor to situations instead of people. This will allow co-workers to relate and bond with one another over shared experiences; whereas jokes about a certain individual can offend or insult that particular person and make you appear unprofessional.
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   Use humor that your audience can appreciate. This practice can ensure that your jokes will be happily and humorously received without offending anyone.
   • Use humor around co-workers you feel comfortable with, or tailor your jokes to accommodate and entertain a certain audience. For example, if there have been rumors that a certain department in your company will soon be downsized, you may not want to make downsizing jokes in front of people who work in that particular department.
     
   • Take note of your co-worker's moods before joking or using humor with them; as sadness, anger, and other negative moods may cause them to receive your joke with less humor than usual or cause them to feel offended.
     
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   Use humor related strictly to the job. Some topics and jokes that are not relevant to work may offend your co-workers.
   • Make jokes about topics such as difficult customers, company goals, competitors, specific company products, and other topics related to your job.
     
   • Refrain from joking about topics considered to be sensitive or offensive by many individuals and companies; such as politics, religion, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality.
     
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   Use humor to ease tension in difficult situations. In some cases, humor can potentially diffuse an argument between co-workers and instantly cause employees to relax.
   • Make a joke during a meeting if co-workers are upset or argumentative, or if negative news about the company has recently been announced.
     
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   Use positive humor instead of negative humor. Positive humor can increase productivity and morale among co-workers; whereas negative humor will usually have negative effects on productivity and lower the morale of employees.

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• Install a bulletin board in the office specifically for displaying humorous jokes and anecdotes, or hang up daily joke-of-the-day calendars to use humor in the workplace without taking an extensive amount of time away from the job.
• Maintain an indifferent attitude if co-workers use humor with you as the topic. This can help demonstrate your professionalism and ability to deal with criticism; however, you may want to inform the individual in private that their jokes about you are offensive if their jokes about you become a repeating habit.
• Joke about individuals only if it favors or compliments the individual. For example, if a co-worker has recently lost a lot of weight, refer to their weight loss success in a joke related to company "downsizing," such as "As you can see, this employee understands a lot about downsizing."