How To Be Funny At Work (And Why It Benefits You and Everyone!)

Nowadays, most offices are rather rigid and work means work type. This is fine, but it makes employees feel like everything is a routine and going to work is boring. But did you know a lot of people act differently when they’re in the office vs when they are out of it. This is because of the fear of creating a reputation as someone who lacks seriousness, professionalism and maturity, so they just hide their fun side. In reality, humor in the workplace can be both career-enhancing and a powerful social intelligence tool, but it needs to be executed with purpose and skill.

A survey shows that “91% of execs believe that a sense of humor is important for career advancement, while 84% feel that people with a good sense of humor do a better job. People shouldn’t take themselves too seriously as a fear of being taken less seriously by others.

The study also shows that humor can be extremely beneficial and promote productivity, promote wellbeing, break down barriers and create a more human and authentic environment. With that, humor has boundaries that must be carefully observed and managed. Here are three essential habits to take into account when being funny in the workplace.

1. Know the basic mechanics of humor.

There is a lot of types of humor, like making fun of yourself, making fun of others, through observation, roasting or verbal intelligence, dark, bodily humor, etc. Some are better for working than others. For example, pulling a chair from under a colleague or farting in the lift is not appropriate and people will hate you for that.

Being too offensive in the workplace is also a taboo, like commenting on someone’s body or making fun of your colleagues in a mean way. This may be great for your drinking buddies, but not in a professional setting. Different types of humor you do will make people perceive you differently. For example, making fun of others like “oh haha she so fat nobody wants her” kind of thing will make you seem as mean and unfriendly. While self-deprecating humor like “I’m not very good at keeping things, you can ask all my ex-girlfriends haha” would make you seem more humble, approachable and down-to-earth IF used sparingly. When it is overused, you can come off as having very low confidence in yourself. Inside jokes can be socially bonding but can also be rude to others that don’t understand the joke itself and you will come off as non-inclusive.

2. Use humor with intent and purpose.

Humor should be used with an intent in mind, for example let’s say there is a new colleague and she is really shy and doesn’t know how to mix with people. You can approach her and crack a joke so she feels like the people in the office are actually friendly. Another example is when the office is really quiet and there is tension in the air, you can say something funny to break that tension and lighten people’s moods. There is purpose in humor like this, it makes people smile, makes the surroundings feel more welcoming and the office interesting. Humor should be both intellectual and empathetic. It is best if it communicates emotional, social and cultural intelligence.

3. Be on top of your game.

To be realistic, using humor and jokes in your workplace has a risk of some people doubting your professionalism and sincerity. For cases like this, it is important to be on top of your game and focus on the details that will make up for these assumptions. For example, in the movie 3 idiots, the main character is always just in it for the laughs, he wants to enjoy life and cracks a lot of jokes and does things people seem childish. The fact that he studies in one of the most competitive engineering universities also makes him look like he is not serious and will be kicked out, but he always excels at his studies because he loves to learn. Because of that, his headmaster went from hating him and finding ways to expel him, to acknowledging that he is the BEST student he has ever had since he started teaching. When you are excelling, people will see that your use of humor is actually quite purposeful.

The punchline….

Using humor in the workplace should not be looked down upon in this day and age. This BBC business report shows how successful and big companies such as Google, Twitter, Red Bull and Siemens are going for a more playful working culture. Recent academic paper also shows that people who use humor in an appropriate and intentional way are far from unprofessional; they are people who look to build a more natural, engaging, authentic and playful work environment and culture. They are among the most emotional and socially intelligent people in the workplace and tend to be genuinely happy, well-adjusted and successful in their work.