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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowI’ve been studying humor as an academic for a couple of decades now. I’ve written a doctoral dissertation about it, published articles about it, given talks about it, and am an avid consumer of humorous content (favorite show: “The Office”).
Therefore, for this column, I’d like to explore humor a bit. In a professional setting, whether it’s a leader making a speech or a salesperson interacting with a client or a doctor delivering news to a patient or countless other interactions, there’s a fine line between funny and unprofessional. When humor goes right, it’s wonderful. When it goes wrong, it can be a disaster. So how do we walk that line?
First off, let’s think about what humor actually is. One of my favorite books is Rod Martin’s and Thomas Ford’s “The Psychology of Humor: An Integrative Approach,” a 500-plus-page (with large pages and rather small print) opus exploring the psychological, biological, linguistic and myriad other underpinnings of humor. (That previous sentence probably says a lot about me.)
Early on, the authors define the very thing they’ll be exploring: “Humor is a broad, multifaceted term that represents anything that people say or do that others perceive as funny and tends to make them laugh, as well as the mental processes that go into both creating and perceiving such an amusing stimulus, and also the emotional response of mirth involved in the enjoyment of it.”
Read that a couple of times—there’s a lot there! Think about a joke someone tells. In that setting, humor is the joke-teller, it’s the audience members and their reaction and their senses of humor, it’s what the joke is about, it’s what the audience thinks and feels, and it’s even more than that. Humor can involve culture, situational factors like timing and context, and plenty of other “it depends”-type dynamics at play. So, yes, humor is complicated! (Fear not, some simple advice is coming toward the end of this column.)
Another complicating factor is that humor comes in many forms. Humor can be dry and sarcastic or warm and inviting. It can be brainy and cerebral or a groan-worthy “Dad joke.” It can be self-depreciating, or it can tease (or brutally mock) others. Part of the reason types of humor seem to be polar opposites is that very different underlying processes give rise to the humor.
Let’s take two of these—incongruity humor and disparagement humor. Incongruity humor focuses on surprising or clever juxtapositions; it’s a mental process where things that don’t quite make sense suddenly do, and humor results. Disparagement humor involves mocking a person or group—with a play signal so that it’s clear humor is involved—to another person or group. The humor results from that shared feeling of superiority or the fun breaking of norms, etc.
There are other processes, but just looking at these two shows how very different humor can be. Quite literally, not all humor is created equally. So which type is better? It’s complicated! (That simple advice is coming, though.)
Given its potential for offense, wouldn’t it be safer just to not use humor at work? Maybe. But humor is a fundamental human experience! Our senses of humor are one of the most important pieces of our personalities. Do we really want to just shut that off, “Severance” style?
If you’re like me, you enjoy leaders and co-workers who use humor well. Whether you’re a doctor interacting with a patient or a business leader making a speech, or just looking to build rapport within a team, humor can have very positive effects in the workplace.
So where is that line between “funny” and “unprofessional?” The truth is that it will vary slightly from organizational culture to culture, and the line is often blurry. How should we approach humor in the workplace? Here are five quick pieces of advice:
1. Think about where that line is for your organization/situation—then stay away from it! You can be funny at work. You can be a leader with a good sense of humor, etc., and not offend anyone. I’ve taught for decades now, and students often describe me as funny, but I’ve never had a single complaint about offending anyone. I think points 2-5 below are why. You can make humor work that way for you, too!
2. Self-depreciating humor is often the best bet. If you are someone who constantly pokes fun at others, it will get old fast. If you are making fun of people you have a power imbalance over, it can be terrifying for them.
Conversely, employees really like leaders who can make fun of themselves. I’d say over 90% of the humor I use in my classroom is self-depreciating, and the same goes for my previous “career” in brand management running stressful teams. There’s certainly a limit—you don’t want to make fun of yourself to the point where people around you question your competence! But when you disparage yourself slightly in a humorous way, the target of that disparagement is self-contained.
It’s a great way to reap the benefits of humor without risking making fun of something others might take offense at.
3. Context is always key. There are settings where humor will work (for example, a sales leader giving a motivational speech to a sales force) and ones where it will not (a human resource leader announcing coming layoffs). Think about the context you’re in, and how humor will play there before using it.
4. Be authentic to yourself, while considering others. If you’re uncomfortable using humor a lot, don’t! You can often get the same reactions (being memorable, having clients feel you are relatable, increasing affinity, etc.) just by being friendly and approachable. And for those of you who love to use humor at work, bring that authenticity while understanding that offending or alienating others isn’t OK just because you “like to be funny.”
5. Some topics are always on the wrong side of the line. Humor involving politics, social issues, gender differences, sexual themes and other sensitive topics is almost never OK in the workplace.
I understand that some readers might look at this advice and say, “Well, this guy’s no fun” or disagree with something I’ve said. Fair enough, as this is just one (decidedly overeducated) guy’s advice. In that case, perhaps better advice would be to binge a few seasons of “The Office” and take some notes on what Michael Scott does. Then just do the opposite!•
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Mayer is clinical associate professor of marketing at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University Indianapolis.
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