Do Employees Disrespect a Funny Boss?

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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 be: Be firm but friendly, putting employees at ease with a laugh or two if one has the skill to do so appropriately. (Let’s leave the priest/minister/rabbi joke teller out of this for now.) People enjoy working for someone who finds humor in the 9 to 5 (or 8 to 7), work hard for that person and stick around awhile. 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.

Signed,

Afraid to Laugh

Dear Chucklehead,

I’ve always found that being light and humorous with people is a better management tool than being a hard-fisted, hammer-driving butt-kicker. I’ve also generally felt it works as an employee, too. You can go overboard, though. One year I went in for my department’s budget review and the chairman said, “Oh, good. Here’s Bing. We can have a laugh.” I didn’t think that was generally superb positioning in that instance. As for being a light-hearted and funny boss, yeah, it’s a good stance to take, mostly because many of us find it more fun to be that way than to be a jerk.

On the other hand, don’t forget that in the end being a boss means never having to give a rational reason for what you want. It means having authority over people whether you’re smarter than them or not. It means getting what you want even when what you want is stupid. There are times, inevitably, when you don’t get what you want, and that may require yelling and screaming like a little baby. Don’t neglect that as part of your arsenal as well.