This would be developed in order to determine employees to reveal their funny side, to become more receptive to jokes made by others, and to create their own jokes, within limits. It has been reported that offensive workplace humor refers to age, sexual orientation, weight, accents, personal hygiene, and work behavior (Scott, 2009).
The manager's reluctance to humor will be a major obstacle to be surpassed. It will probably take more than three weeks to convince the boss to embrace humor as a means of communication at work.
The results after three weeks did not produce exactly the expected outcome, but were productive enough in order to encourage continuing with this project. The team building mentioned above produced significant effects within the work group. For example, participants opened up more on their lives, preferences, experiences, new employees integrated quickly within the group.
One of the most important aspect that was observed consists in the fact that the majority of employees is oriented towards humor, whether from a passive point-of-view, like enjoying other people's jokes, or from an active one, like producing humor.
Integrating humor in the work routine does not presume any disruptions or delays in employees' work. Although the boss was somewhat...
Employees have noticed that stress related to their job is somewhat reduced, they feel more free to make certain observation or complaints, using humor, complaints that they would not make otherwise, they feel better about themselves and about their jobs.
During this project I also noticed that one tends to be more tolerant with colleagues when humor is involved and the situation in case is less tense. Although humor did not produce significant changes in the communication relationship with our boss, the atmosphere at the office is more pleasant, less tens, and the job does not represent a source of stress anymore. Therefore, it is recommended to continue implementing this project.
Reference list:
1. Klein, K. (2007). Humor in the Workplace. Businessweek. Retrieved December 5, 2009 from http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/nov2007/sb2007115_185030.htm.
2. Scott, E. (2009). Workplace Humor: How to Reduce Stress with Inoffensive Office Humor. Retrieved December 5, 2009 from http://stress.about.com/od/workplacestress/a/officehumor.htm.
