Notes from the Payroll Prof

by Roger A. Smith, CPP, Payroll Management Consultant

At last month’s meeting of our chapter of the American Payroll Association (APA) we had the privilege of listening to our guest speaker, Larry White, CPP from the APA. Larry’s presentation was about leadership skills, but rather than a boring litany of bullet points on PowerPoint slides, Larry used humor to get his points across. He didn’t present clichés such as “Good leaders need to encourage employees.” Instead, he challenged attendees with questions like, “Who says cheerleading isn’t a career path?” He didn’t simply talk about learning from mistakes; he had a visual of a pencil with a small yellow part for writing and a huge eraser for correcting mistakes. Not only was his approach much more fun than a conventional presentation, it was also much more memorable.

We’ve probably all heard that we should “have fun at work” or that we should “enjoy what we do,” but how many of us really do?

Ninety-six percent of the executives surveyed by Accountemps believed that people with a sense of humor do better at their jobs than those who have little or no sense of humor. Studies have also shown that people who enjoy their work are more productive and creative, in addition to experiencing greater job satisfaction.¹ Research shows that laughter stimulates the immune system, decreases “stress” hormones, and increases endorphins.²

Is there anyone who doubts that humor in the workplace is a good idea? Do you enjoy going back to a workplace that is fun? How often have you seen a really stressful situation de-fused by an appropriate interjection of humor?

Yet, with all this evidence, do you really have fun at work? Do you get up in the morning and say, “I can’t wait to get to work?” If not, why not? You may answer that you just aren’t appreciated, or that your management discourages humor of any kind, but is that an “answer” or an “excuse?”

Certainly management can do a lot to promote a fun, positive and productive work environment. You have probably heard of leaders such as Herb Kelleher at Southwest Airlines who encouraged fun and creativity. Kelleher once settled a legal dispute with another company by publicly arm-wrestling the other company's CEO. He was always ready to get in on the fun. He once dressed up as Elvis for Halloween, and another time drove a Harley to a company picnic. His attitude spread throughout the company. Flight crews are known to wear costumes on Halloween and make pre-flight announcements such as "There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only four ways out of this airplane." Southwest employees have fun at work. How successful is this attitude? In 2006, Southwest received 284,827 applications for just 3,363 job openings. In addition, Southwest is one of the few airlines that is actually profitable today.

You and I have worked for managers who do make you want to come to work. But if you’re not in that situation, what can you do? The U.S. Postal Service certainly doesn’t have a reputation as a “fun place to work.” Yet I don’t know anyone who seems to enjoy their job more than our letter carrier. Although her job could be described as boring, delivering letters, junk mail, and packages to the same addresses every day, she is always friendly and extra helpful to the customers on her route. I once apologized to her that we had a car blocking the mailbox. Her response was a smile and a remark that parked cars just make her job more interesting. She is happy in her work, in spite of what others may consider a negative workplace.

Life is about choices. If your work is so bad that you can’t possibly imagine enjoying any part of your day, perhaps your choice should be to look for another job. On the other hand, most of us have jobs that contain both the good and the bad. We can react to the negative situations in a negative way, or we can choose to look beyond them, see the humor in the situation, and share our outlook with others. Humor is contagious. Unfortunately, so is a negative attitude. It’s up to you to choose your attitude.

So, are you having fun at work? If not, whose fault is it?

¹301 Ways to Have Fun at Work by Dave Hemsath et. al., Berrett-Koehler, 1997
²“Lessons From the Humor Police: How to evaluate workplace humor” by Dr. Joni Johnston, HR.com

As always, if you have any questions or comments, my email address is Roger.Smith@PayrollProf.com.