The system shall create peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
One of those things you do to make yourself laugh. I also thought I'd see who read the document. Well, my colleagues got a good chuckle, but not everyone felt that way. One of the program managers thought that this was unprofessional, but we didn't think he was very funny either. Get this: seven years after that incident he referred to this incident as an example of how we had to be more professional. Seven years later? Really? Dude, you gotta let go of that. But it got me thinking: what are the unofficial rules of humor in the work place? Since our goal is to be effective, what's effective and ineffective?
We once got an email asking what the process was for retiring a corporate wide system. I suggested that the system get a trailer and pink flamingo's in Florida. The email had a decent size distribution list and I got some interesting feedback. One person thanked me, saying that the email had made their day. Other folks bantered back and forth about out retirement destinations around the country for their systems. One manager said I shouldn't send emails like that. Interesting. Do people get less funny the higher up the management food chain they get? Again, what should we be doing or not doing?
First of all, as one person has said, 'humor is like oil in a machine' - helps to smooth things out. Humor is part of human interaction - makes life enjoyable, smooths out rough spots. So humor definitely has a place in our work with others.
Humor in the workplace does carry a risk of being seen as mockery of the organization and can be seen as disrespectful, so be cautious. Part of this is that humor introduces a certain element of surprise or unpredictability, which managers and leadership don't like.
The thing about humor is that it can be interpreted in different ways. Just because I think it's funny doesn't mean you will think it's funny - you may actually be offended. Humor is very often culturally dependent too.
We somethings think that we're funnier than we really are - don't get too excited about something you think is funny. I'd say be sober about your humor, but that just doesn't sound right ;-)
It's probably best to avoid humor in written communication since you don't know where it will go. Written communication tends to loose context and expression, so it can go bad without intending too. A document can be around for years. Humor in customer deliverables is a bad idea - like saying the system will generate sandwiches! That was a bad idea on my part.
Lots of humor today has a disparaging, derogatory or belittling effect - really need to avoid this kind of humor. Self deprecation humor is almost always tolerated.
So by all means - let your funny bone come to work, but be a little careful. Hopefully analyzing humor provides some guidelines, but it didn't take the fun out of it!
We once got an email asking what the process was for retiring a corporate wide system. I suggested that the system get a trailer and pink flamingo's in Florida. The email had a decent size distribution list and I got some interesting feedback. One person thanked me, saying that the email had made their day. Other folks bantered back and forth about out retirement destinations around the country for their systems. One manager said I shouldn't send emails like that. Interesting. Do people get less funny the higher up the management food chain they get? Again, what should we be doing or not doing?
First of all, as one person has said, 'humor is like oil in a machine' - helps to smooth things out. Humor is part of human interaction - makes life enjoyable, smooths out rough spots. So humor definitely has a place in our work with others.
Humor in the workplace does carry a risk of being seen as mockery of the organization and can be seen as disrespectful, so be cautious. Part of this is that humor introduces a certain element of surprise or unpredictability, which managers and leadership don't like.
The thing about humor is that it can be interpreted in different ways. Just because I think it's funny doesn't mean you will think it's funny - you may actually be offended. Humor is very often culturally dependent too.
We somethings think that we're funnier than we really are - don't get too excited about something you think is funny. I'd say be sober about your humor, but that just doesn't sound right ;-)
It's probably best to avoid humor in written communication since you don't know where it will go. Written communication tends to loose context and expression, so it can go bad without intending too. A document can be around for years. Humor in customer deliverables is a bad idea - like saying the system will generate sandwiches! That was a bad idea on my part.
Lots of humor today has a disparaging, derogatory or belittling effect - really need to avoid this kind of humor. Self deprecation humor is almost always tolerated.
So by all means - let your funny bone come to work, but be a little careful. Hopefully analyzing humor provides some guidelines, but it didn't take the fun out of it!
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