Does Humor Hurt a Boss's Authority?
Dear Stanley,
As a boss with a sense of humor, do you find that making people laugh in the office can make it harder to get them to do what needs to be done? The progressive approach to leadership would seem to argue the opposite: People enjoy working for someone who finds humor in the 9 to 5, work harder for that person, and will stick around for a while. But some employees take anything less than a consistently hard exterior as a sign of vulnerability, and behave accordingly. Maybe we should just can those people. But, you know, in a funny way.
Looking for Laughs
Dear Laughing Dude,
I do find that a huge dollop of humor helps the medicine go down. The thing is, humor is like any other professional implement in the workplace. It should NOT be utilized by amateurs. Sins that are committed by bosses who think they are funny, but are not, include:
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Egregious Joke Telling: The joke is the refuge of the insufficiently amusing. Sure, many funny people tell jokes. But a vast number of people who are incapable of wringing laughter from a hyena rely on the genre to appear more funny than they are. These are guys — many in Sales — who know hundreds of jokes, only some of which are clean and very few of which are genuinely funny. In social situations, there’s no problem. But when the boss tells a joke, people have to reward them with chuckles — or else. This leads to a variety of complaints, from Horrendous Insincerititis to painful Facial Rictus. Sadistic Zaniosity: Bosses are generally an angry, power-driven bunch. That’s how they got to be bosses. Very often their idea of humor is to torture smaller life forms in the guise of good-natured ribbing. This is the school of “Wasn’t it hilarious when Roover fell down the stairs?” or “Did you see Wean’s expression when that paintball hit her in the face? Priceless!” These guys are always trying to make others feel small. In this case, they’re using a different screen to do so. They may also employ the “clever crack” to make others feel uncomfortable. And again, you have to laugh when all you really want to do is barf. Inappropriate Casualness: There are actually some funny people who make it to become the boss. In some cases, however, the boss who is able to use humor becomes addicted to it and mistakenly believes that his or her job is to get laughs, not manage an operation. This is the boss who is constantly making people do spit takes and shoot milk from their noses but can’t summon up the necessary authority to get things from Point A to Point B when the pedal is supposed to be hitting the metal.
In all these cases, humor in uniform doesn’t work very well. A funny boss needs to be a) genuinely funny and b) always a credible manager. Not everybody can do this. Those who can are to be treasured and loved, of course, and make more money than anybody else. Are you listening, Boss?
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