Humor In The Workplace: A Hangin’ Offense?

Facebook reminds me from time to time what bad leadership really looks like. Take this example, posted last week:

“New boss has chastised me in writing and copied it to the HR file he keeps for employees. My offense? Making a small joke about a typo. Our finance manager left the Million out of our $10 million goal… so I joked that the $10 goal would be awesome. The boss’ response was: ‘Although I appreciate your sense of humor, I think this type of email is not useful and deviates the group from the main point.’  He became my boss 4 days ago.”

I just want to send this manager an anonymous note and ask, “Really?” (Partially because “deviate” is not, under any circumstances, nor will it EVER be, a transitive verb, and the verbification of nouns in business jargon makes my blood turn to ice-cold cottage cheese. But I digress.)

Since when is a gently humorous, obviously-not-meant-in-the-least-bit-seriously Reply To All a cause for formal disciplinary action?

Leapin’ Lollipops, y’all. If humor in the workplace is a write-up-worthy offense, my personnel file would be longer than War & Peace by now.

humor at work nsfw leadership training appropriateWe know from leadership training that there are times when certain behaviors might fall in the “Acceptable” area of a leader’s Behavior Window*, and times when the same behaviors may fall in the “Unacceptable” area. But heavens to betsy. I can’t imagine how lousy a day I’d have to have before an impromptu bit of humor rose to the level of I’m-Making-A-Note-In-Your-Permanent-Record.

I feel for my friend, who’s by nature a lighthearted, spontaneous, and funny girl. She’s been with this company for more than fifteen years and has done very well there.  I’ve known her long enough to know that she isn’t going to be able to suppress her inner comedian, and clearly her new boss isn’t going to embrace it. Which is unfortunate. Because at best, she’s going to continue to communicate with her colleagues exactly as she always have, and will leave him off the cc: list. At worst, she’s going to grow to resent having to smother a fundamental part of her personality for 40+ hours every week. But if her new manager’s actions on Day Four are any indication of the near- to mid-term future, she may as well dust off the resume right now.

I suppose in the long run, her boss is at least partially right. Humor isn’t necessarily “useful.” If workplace communications were limited to those that are strictly useful, however, I’d be an accountant, not a writer. Not all communication is strictly utilitarian. I’d even argue that the kinds of communication that build trust, teamwork, and a healthy work environment are the ones that are not strictly “useful.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower was a highly regarded leader, and I’m going to give the last words on this jaw-dropping to him.

“A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.” Amen.

*The Behavior Window is a trademarked tool used in Dr. Thomas Gordon’s Leader Effectiveness Training (L.E.T.) program.

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