Should humor be encouraged in the workplace?

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Monash University English Language Centre

Monash University Bridging Course

Research Essay

Should humor be encouraged in the workplace?

Name:       Dong Yan (Vincent)

Student no.:  19106688

Class:       MEP1R

Teachers:    Cher, Sylvia

Crooke, Raymond

Due date:    21 June 2004

Word count:  1612  

Master of HRM

Workplaces have been generally seen as serious places where people pursue their career and earn money for their daily lives. Being paid salary to produce profit for their organizations, employees are supposed to take their jobs very seriously and can not underestimate their responsibilities. Therefore, it is reasonable that employees are not allowed to make jokes or have fun in the workplace. However, this serious working environment seems to cause many problems for companies, such as employee turnover, absenteeism, etc. Therefore, a series of different arguments about this issue have been presented. This essay will argue that humor, a very efficient managerial tool to solve those problems, should be encouraged in the workplace.

In this essay, there points related to humor in the workplace will be discussed. Firstly, the definition of humor will be introduced. Secondly, this essay will explore the benefits of using humor in the office and give some suggestions about avoiding using inappropriate humor. Thirdly, the reason why people can not make jokes will be explained, and the possibility of injecting humor in the workplace will be evaluated.

First of all, before exploring other aspects about humor in the workplace, it is necessary to understand clearly what humor is. Different people might give different definitions of humor. Fry (Shearer, 1998) explains that humor is composed of situational jokes. It is an ongoing interpersonal process. In addition, Malone (1980), in reporting Chapman’s study, states, “humor is a process initiated by a humorous stimulus, such as a joke or cartoon, and terminating with some response indicative of experienced pleasure, such as laughter”. According to Shearer (1998), the most significant point about humor is that it can make people take their life less seriously.

Secondly, a survey shows a stressful working environment costs the North American economy 100 billion dollars each year. Since a serious working environment wastes companies a lot of money, humor should be injected into workplaces (Shearer, 1998). Not only employees but also organizations can gain many benefits from using humor in the workplace.

The most significant advantage of using humor in the workplace is to make employees healthy. Some people argue that humor just can make people laugh. After laughing, people can gain nothing. However, Shermen (Roth, 2002) states that “... numerous benefits of humor to the human body and found it to be a positive coping tool for stress, illness and pain”. It has been proved that using humor can release employees’ stress and anxiety. According to Shearer (1998), a scientific study shows that laughter can enable our body to produce positive chemical and physiological changes. Braverman (1993) explains that humor is similar to jogging, which can make people healthy. The difference is that humor is “internal jogging”. When people are laughing, their heart rate and blood circulation are increased and more oxygen is absorbed. Moreover, when people stop laughing, one kind of chemistry called endorphins, which can lead to physical relaxation, will be released in the brain.

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It is has been argued that humor can be an obstacle of the communication between colleagues. Chapman (Malone, 1980) states, “humor has often been characterized as base and degenerate, fit only for the ignorant and foolish”. Moreover, using humor in the workplace often leads to sexual harassment, racial discrimination, etc.

However, humor can be an efficient way to build relationship with other colleagues. According to Baughman (2001), he mentions that Borge, the great humorist pianist states, “A smile is the shortest distance between two people”. Nowadays, as teamwork is becoming more and more essential in any organization, ...

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