I Think, Therefore I Laugh

If you think you're naturally funny, you probably already add humor to your own workday. But even if you're less convinced of your comedic talents, you can rely on others. Here are some tips to help you find more humor at work. They're especially useful after performance reviews.

Read procedure manuals

Are these guys kidding? If we actually tried to run the company this way, we'd be out of business before you could say, "Use the process, Luke."

Keep an audio recording player handy or listen on the Web

Get a player and a pair of headphones, and bring some humorous recordings to work. Take a humor break now and then with Tom Lehrer, Elayne Boosler, or Garrison Keillor. They'll help you keep corporate policy — and workplace politics — in perspective.

Read humor on the Web

Almost everything on the Web is funny, if you tilt it just right. But some sites actually try to be funny. Examples: News of the Weird, HumorLinks and the US House of Representatives. Uh, maybe not the House of Representatives. If you can't do this at work, print pages at home and read them whenever you need to.

Keep a book ready

The human adult
needs 12 good
laughs a day

Get a book of humor — short jokes, funny stories, or inane observations — and pick it up now and then for a few laughs. Twelve good laughs is a minimum daily adult requirement.

Capture gems from the air

Almost daily, someone in your life says something truly hilarious — sometimes intentionally. Intentional or not, write it down, with enough context so you'll understand it months from now. Once a year, read your collection from beginning to end, when no one is looking.

Post humor on the wall outside your door

As people pass, they'll stop to read your postings and laugh. With some exceptions, their laughter is much better than normal hallway noise.

Subscribe to an email humor list

There are lots of these, both formal and informal. Sometimes the informal ones — the networks of friends of friends — are the funniest. It's funny what some people find funny.

Get a cartoon-a-day desk calendar

Every morning make a little ritual of tearing off yesterday's cartoon and reading today's. Save the really good ones. Post the bad ones outside someone else's door.

Throw away your boring coffee mug

Get one that's really ridiculous, with a cartoon character sculpted on it — maybe Wiley Coyote or Bullwinkle J. Moose. Take it with you to the really important teleconferences.

These tips can help you most when you're least likely to remember them. Even if you do remember, reaching for a laugh when you're feeling angry or low can be difficult. But if you can remember, and if you can muster the will, the payoff from laughter is the best there is — happiness.  Top    Next Issue

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Here are some amusing Web sites, including a few from the February 11, 2001 issue of The Wall Street Journal. Some of these play sound, so prepare accordingly:

• Villa de Loon A funny blog. Tiber lost his job and moved back in with his rich, eccentric family, only to find that the "eccentric" part remains but the "rich" may be going.
• The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
• The Worst Metaphors Ever Written By High School Students Really.
• The Colbert Report
• Saturday Night Live
• Resumania Excerpts from real-life resumes. Visit their Hall of Fame.
• The Onion, a satire of the news. 18 and over.
• The Dead People Server A database of interesting celebrities who are long dead or newly dead. They even have an RSS feed (for those who are waiting for someone specific to die, I guess).
• DMOZ.org directory of humor sites. Humor of all kinds from Advice to Wordplay.
• GirlComic.net A collection of pieces from female funny people.
• Yahoo's links to political humor sites
• Pocho.com Satire, news y chat for the Spanglish generation.
• The Obscure Store and reading room
• Harry Shearer Humor from the host and creator of Le Show and the voice of Principal Skinner.
• BitOfFun.com Humor at work, and other places.

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"Would you like some feedback on that?" Uh-oh, you think, absolutely not. But if you're like many of us, your response is something like, "Sure, I'd be very interested in your thoughts." Why is giving and receiving feedback so difficult?

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Establishing norms for respectful behavior is perhaps the most effective way to reduce the incidence of toxic conflict at work. When we all understand and subscribe to a particular way of treating each other, we can all help prevent trouble.

Make Suggestions Privately

Suggesting a better way of doing things can sometimes backfire surprisingly and intensely. Making suggestions privately reduces that risk, but introduces a different risk.

See also Emotions at Work for more related articles.

Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout

Coming January 19: Comply, Resist, or Exploit?

When we encounter obstacles, we have choices about how we deal with them. Generally, we can comply, we can resist, or sometimes, we can find ways to use the obstacles — to exploit them — to advance to our objectives. The pandemic provides two examples. Available here and by RSS on January 19.

And on January 26: Cyber Rumors in Organizations

Rumor management practices in organizations haven't kept up with rumor propagation technology. Rumors that propagate by digital means — cyber rumors — have longer lifetimes, spread faster, are more credible, and are better able to reinforce each other. Available here and by RSS on January 26.

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