Should you try to be funny at work?
When to use humour at work; Being heard in a noisy world; A Factual Storytelling School special offer; Why am I receiving The Factual Storyteller?
Have you ever attempted to be funny at work, using humour as a way to impact and influence others?
If you have, read on, because academic research is revealing that using humour as a communication strategy is actually a very risky thing to do.
First, it’s worth highlighting that although people often use humour at work, there is actually very little research into why people do so, particularly why leaders choose to try to be funny in front of their often subordinate colleagues.
Some studies suggest they do so as a way to encourage more equality between them and their colleagues.
That rings true - a leader or manager that jokes with their team may appear less formal, more approachable and may be subconsciously using jokes to project the idea they are not above, or separate from their wider team.
Other research shows that humour can be an effective way to improve colleagues’ perceptions of the joke-teller. Especially if the joke-teller has something negative to say.
For example, if you attend a job interview, you may be asked to name your greatest weakness. If you respond by saying “I am not good at maths”, your interviewees may be inclined to question your competency.
If you pair your admission with a joke, by replying “I am not good at maths. Geometry is where I draw the line,” your interviewer is likely to accept the answer, but not be as inclined to accept you are poor at maths.
That’s because studies show humour can reduce the perceived veracity of negative statements.
But, and this is an important but, using humour when communicating at work is risky, especially for leaders.
It’s true that successful leaders often use humour to motivate, inspire and lead.
But research suggests that there is an in-built dynamic to joke-telling that means it may not be appropriate to use humour at work.
In short, a joke cannot be both funny and innocuous.
For a joke to be perceived as funny, it has to transgress in some way, often being disparaging, and challenging, even incrementally, another’s sense of morality.
Studies repeatedly show that more disparaging jokes are rated as funnier than less disparaging jokes. And that the more disparaging and funnier a joke is, the less ethical it is perceived to be.
That places colleagues and leaders who like or want to use humour at work on the horns of a dilemma.
Because workers and especially leaders are expected to set ethical and moral standards of behaviour within their organisation.
Yet joke-telling intrinsically challenges these standards.
Research has found that leaders that use humour at work may therefore undermine an organisation’s moral and ethical standards by, even in a small way, telling jokes that inherently disparage others and their morality. And that leads to greater so-called ‘deviant’ or unethical behaviour and standards, by both the leader and their colleagues.
Other research has also found that a leader’s use of humour can discourage subordinates from engaging in constructive conversations with them.
That’s because a leader trying to be funny, can often be perceived as a leader intentionally using humour to disparage and dominate others - i.e. it can be considered a form of social aggression. Subordinates often view a joke-telling leader as a hostile leader. And suspect that their senior is exploiting and abusing their senior status to demean others.
As a result, a leader’s team members often react by avoiding the leader completely, and disengaging from constructive dialogue with them.
As is often the case, the situation isn’t black and white.
Saying something unexpectedly funny to your audience is one legitimate way to get their attention, exploiting a phenomenon known as the Von Restorff effect, which suggests the more unusual something is, the more we notice, pay attention to and remember it.
Read more at: How can you make people remember you?
We’ve also previously talked about how using emoticons and emojis in your messages can potentially compromise how your audience views and respects you.
Adding in expressive emoticons, such as happy or hesitant faces, kisses and cute animals, helps you appear chatty, personal and funny. And they can engender warmth from your audience.
However, they often lead to those people receiving your message feeling that you are less assertive, and less competent.
Read more at: Should you use emoticons and emojis at work?
So trying to appear humorous in an email or text message, by including emojis and emoticons, can backfire.
And finally, it’s worth bearing in mind that, as in life, humorous conversations at work aren’t always a one way street.
Most research into the use of humour when communicating at work tends to focus on organisations’ leaders, and the impact of their humour on their teams.
But many humorous conversations are dynamic, with both parties contributing. Bosses may joke with their colleagues, but colleagues may also joke with their bosses. And team members can also strategically use humour as a communication strategy when conversing with their seniors at work.
For example, making a joke may be a subtle and effective way to communicate unhappiness about a leader’s decisions or actions, and may help hold leaders to account in the process.
Being heard in a noisy world
Time for a quick, and vitally important reminder. Far too often, when we try to communicate with other people, either personally, when we are trying to share progress at work, or tell an organisation’s story, we assume people are waiting to hear what we have to say.
And we forget how many other people, colleagues and companies are competing with us to also be heard.
When you communicate, bear in mind you are always competing for someone’s attention. You are competing for their time. For their interest. You are competing to have your message be remembered by them.
You may not be aware just how noisy the world is. And how easy it is for others to ignore you. Because you are competing against a universe of factual content and information that is expanding every second.
If you speak in a meeting, you are competing to be heard among the other attendees.
If you send an email, your message is competing for attention with 3 million emails that are sent, around the world, every second.
When you send that most important message, it’s worth remembering the millions of other emails others are sending at the exact same time.
The recipient of your message won’t receive all those, but on average, they will receive more than 100 other emails that day. That doesn’t include spam.
When you tweet, your 140+ characters join 10,000 tweets (Xs) sent that same second.
Your Instagram post is vying with more than 1000 others sent each second.
Your blog post is competing to be read with more than 2000 posts to Tumblr each second.
When you post to Youtube, bear in mind more than 95,000 other Youtube videos have just been viewed, in that same second.
When you craft that company strategy or report, and post it online, will anyone discover and read it, given that 2 billion web pages exist, with more than 80% of them not being seen by anyone?
Those statistics may appear a little overwhelming. We share them not to discourage you from promoting your story and message, but as a reminder that to be heard amongst the noise, you need to learn and apply the principles of effective communication that we help coach at the Factual Storytelling School.
Enrol in the Factual Storytelling School: Special offer
On that note, a quick promotion: that for a limited time you and your colleagues can enrol in the Factual Storytelling School, and receive full access to over 13 hours of tuition and a 450 page Factual Storytelling Handbook, for just £49.50.
Go to the Factual Storytelling School checkout here, enter the code enrolnow, and gain a 50% discount on the enrolment fee.
If you’re thinking of joining for yourself, you’ll learn how to advance your work and career and become a much more effective communicator. You’ll learn how to produce a range of professional content formats, including news, feature and opinion articles, as well as produce engaging reports, presentations, videos and podcasts.
If you’re thinking of enroling colleagues, your team will learn how to find and identify stories in their work, and better share them inside your organisation and externally with customers, clients and collaborators.
The course can be accessed online, from anywhere, including by office and home workers, and completed at your employees’ pace.
When you think that poor communication costs organisations an average of $12,506, each year, per employee (The State of Business Communication 2023 report. Grammarly), enroling in the Factual Storytelling School is perhaps the most cost-effective step you can take to boost your organisation’s performance.
Enrol now, skill up and help boost your corporate effectiveness, impact, reputation and employee engagement.
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