a survey of 1,000 workers conducted for the authors by the research firm Ipsos, employees who laugh at work tend to stay. Those who rated their managers sense of humour above average also said there was a 90 per cent chance they would stay in their job for more than a year.
Work, in its most traditional sense, is the antithesis of fun. As my grandmother used to say, when I complained about a boss or a deadline, “There’s a reason they call it work.”
Grandma would be beyond surprised at what Adrian Gostick and Scott Christopher have to say in “The Levity Effect: Why It Pays to Lighten Up” (Wiley). The book, which is to be released later this month, examines how fun in the office increases the bottom line. And they are very serious about that.
“When they’re laughing, they’re listening,” said Gostick, an author and consultant on employee motivation. Christopher, a comedian and humour columnist for Human Capital magazine, and Gostick chuckle as they throw out favourite arguments: A study of 737 chief executives of major corporations found that 98 per cent would hire an applicant with a good sense of humour over one who seemed to lack one.
Fun makes people loyal
According to a survey of 1,000 workers conducted for the authors by the research firm Ipsos, employees who laugh at work tend to stay. Those who rated their manager’s sense of humour “above average” also said there was a 90 per cent chance they would stay in their job for more than a year. If they worked for a boss whose sense of humour they describe as “average” or below, the employee’s chances of staying dropped to 77 per cent.
Amusing people go far
According to a study in the Harvard Business Review, executives described by co-workers as having a good sense of humour “climb the corporate ladder more quickly, and earn more money than their peers.”
A study from the University of Maryland showed that while stress decreased blood flow, humour increased it by 22 percent.
All right, laughter is beneficial. And potentially good for business. But isn’t that knowledge its own form of stress? I mean, what if you aren’t funny?
Don’t we have enough to worry about at a job interview without adding “ability to do stand-up” to the list — humour is so subjective, and so potentially deflating when it falls flat. And don’t bosses have enough to handle, what with this slumping economy, without being expected to rally the troops by making them laugh? There are quite a few smart and industrious folk out there who have no business getting up at the front of the office and doing a comedy routine.
Not to worry, Gostick said. “We define levity as more of a lightness, more being fun than being funny,” he said. “Great leaders have a way of bringing lightness into the workplace.” “The boss is not necessarily the humour giver,” added Christopher as much as the humour enabler, or, at least, the humour tolerator.”
Fun is healthy
In recent years, a growing number of companies have strived to have “lighthearted” workplaces, Gostick said.
Bain & Company, the business consulting firm, does that by gathering more than 400 employees from around the world for the annual Bain World Cup soccer tournament. Lego America, which manufactures toys, encourages employees to travel the company campus via scooter. Google holds roller-hockey games in the parking lot twice a week, has ongoing Scrabble tournaments throughout the day and boasts a baby grand in the break room.
Some companies actually put a group or an individual in charge of planning the levity.
At the advertising agency iris North America it’s called “the Smile Squad,” said Stewart Shanley, a founder. The squad has its own logo and budget and is responsible for “general well-being and serendipitous happenings” at the 475-employee agency, Shanley said. “Keeping people happy is what makes them perform and stay,” he said. The Smile Squad often teams up with the Sports Squad, which sees that everyone gets some exercise, and the Lash Squad, which, Shanley explained, “takes people out and gets them merrily drunk once in a while.”
Whoa. Company-sanctioned drinking? Might that not make some people uncomfortable? What about those who do not drink? “There’s a time and a place,” Christopher said. “Levity doesn’t mean a lack of sensitivity.” Just as some companies seem to be getting it right, there are examples of bosses who missed the mark. A study out of Japan in February, for instance, explored the physical and emotional damage experienced by women working retail jobs who are required to smile continuously. They are sometimes trained by a “smile consultant” who urges wider, brighter and more teeth.
Dr Makoto Natsume, a psychiatrist at Osaka University, has identified what he calls “smile mask syndrome” and argues that it causes women to suppress their real emotions, leading to depression, muscle pain and repetitive-stress injury of the face.
In other words, enforced levity can make you sick.
