Office humor

Office humor, also often called workplace comedy, is humor within the workplace, in particular, office, environment. It is a subject that receives significant attention from students of industrial and organizational psychology and of the sociology of work, as well as in popular culture.

Academic considerations

Humor is an inevitable part of the social environment of work, and has been argued to be a potential tool for improving worker satisfaction and organizational results. Studies have suggested that humor can increase worker cohesiveness, creativity, motivation, and resilience in the face of adversity.^[1][2][3]

On the other hand, workplace humor (especially negative humor) can also be misused to reinforce bigotry, denigrate minorities, create an atmosphere of physical or sexual harassment, or as a management tool to reinforce managerial authority.^[1][4]

Legal considerations

Inappropriate workplace humor may be deemed as "evidence in sexual harassment, discrimination and hostile work environment cases".^[5] It has led to serious consequences in cases such as the Krull case, where the ombudsman of King County, Washington was fired for sending a copy of the 1894 booklet Instruction and Advice for the Young Bride to his soon-to-be-married assistant,^[6] or Chevron Corporation having to pay more than $2 million as a settlement with four employees after an interoffice email circulated on the subject of "25 Reasons Why Beer is Better Than Women".^[5]

Representations in popular culture

Office humor is the focus of comic strips (Dilbert, Gaus Electronics, Help Desk, Misaeng, User Friendly, Sosiaalisesti rajoittuneet), movies (Office Space, Head Office), TV series (The Peter Principle, The Office & The Office UK, Dilbert, & Superstore) and contemporary art (as in works by Mike Kelley^[7][8]).

Federalisms is a Washington, D.C.-based company that uses office humor to improve morale for federal employees and contractors through greeting cards and social media.^[9]

References

1. Wijewardena, Nilupama, Hartel, Charmine E. J., and Samaratunge, Ramanie. "A laugh a day is sure to keep the blues away: managers' use of humor and the construction and destruction of employees' resilience." In Wilfred J. Zerbe, Charmine E. J. Härtel and Neal M. Ashkanasy, eds., Emotions and Organizational Dynamism (Emerald Group Publishing, 2010), ISBN 978-0857241771, pp. 259-278. Excerpts available at Google Books.
2. Stephanie Dolgoff, "Funny business: why workplace teams that share laughs do better and more profitable work. (Yup, office yuks have been studied!)."^{[dead link]} SUCCESS, May 1, 2012.
3. Karen E. Klein, "Humor in the Workplace", Bloomberg Businessweek, November 5, 2007.
4. Ford, T. E., & Fitzgerald, C. M. "Sexist humor in the workplace: A case of subtle harassment." In Jerald Greenberg (Ed.), Insidious Workplace Behavior (Routledge, 2010), ISBN 978-1848728585, pp. 175-206. Excerpts available at Google Books.
5. T. Shawn Taylor, Chicago Tribune, April 26, 2002  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required).
6. David Schaefer, "Ombudsman Is Fired -- County Council Says Krull Engaged In `Misconduct'" Seattle Times, October 22, 1996.
7. Tom McGlynn, "Mike Kelley: Laughing at Deadlines", Artwrit, Winter 2012.
8. "Mike Kelley, Three Projects: Half a Man, From My Institution to Yours, and Pay for Your Pleasure" 2013-05-12 at the Wayback Machine, Renaissance Society, May 1988.
9. "Federalisms™". Federalisms™. Retrieved 2020-12-16.

Further reading

• T Bradford Bitterly; Alison Wood Brooks; Maurice E Schweitzer (10 November 2016). "Risky business: When humor increases and decreases status". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 112 (3): 431–455. doi:10.1037/pspi0000079. PMID 27831701. S2CID 3437230.