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Ever get frustrated and feel like saying that sometimes? What about right now?!

 

Do you have one of those bosses? You know, the kind who doesn’t think anything is funny or in the least bit comical at all? There are some working environments where managers take their jobs waaay too seriously and just need to lighten up a **wee** bit. Just a bit, is all. All too often they haven’t realized that not only is it fun to have fun at work, but in some instances it’s actually unavoidable. I mean, when it’s funny, it’s funny, right? Take for instance:

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • The Network Systems Analyst who should know the difference in LAN and CAD, but keeps using them interchangeably (and incorrectly) in his weekly management presentation. Wow. Who hired him?
  • What about the stodgy CFO who walks out of the executive washroom, gives you and the other staffers an obligatory nod and proceeds walking briskly down the hallway…with toilet paper stuck on his shoes. (Well, I’m not going to tell him. YOU tell him!)
  • Having ten super-sized gargantuan pizzas delivered to the weekly management meeting with a “Dear Sally” note attached. “Sally” heard how much the executives all loved pizza, so she’s sending some love their way…COD. Love is expensive! (Make sure your manager is waaaaay laid back before trying this prank or you’ll be taking 10 pizzas and the contents of your desk home at the end of the day!)

 

 

Funny stuff. And you can’t help but admit that it is. But there are some work environments that prohibit you from making light of these situations and having a little fun. And fun is all it is, right? Of course!

 

When managers are just too serious and can’t lighten up, there are often reasons behind it. They could have personal issues that they can’t share with others, prohibiting them from lightening up at the office. Or, maybe they think they’ll lose “boss points” if their subordinates saw them let their hair down a time or two. Could happen you know. You may also work in an office where they just haven’t learned how to have fun. In many of the seminars that I give in corporate environments, I discuss “safe” ways that the office can have fun, be light-hearted, poke fun and be pranksters and work still gets done by days end. As a matter of fact, MORE work gets done and folks are MORE productive because they’re MORE relaxed. It CAN be done. Really.

 

What type of boss do you have at your office? Too hindered let their hair down? A little too reserved to make raucous? Too shy for a little slapstick? (I crack me up!)

 

Tell me what kind of boss you have and I’ll give you my prescription for humor. It will be just what the doctor ordered, I promise.

 

 

 

 

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I’m amazed at how often I hear it from my clients: “We just had a speaker and he (or she) told stories and jokes that were just TOTALLY inappropriate for our association.”
Well folks, I’m here to tell you that if you want your speaker to use humor… ask them whether it is clean humor. Ask ‘em how they define “clean comedy.” If you need to, ask for examples. Last thing you want is for your boss and HR director to call you in to their offices to show you the stack of complaint letters about the comic speaker who “just wasn’t funny.”

I was chatting with a meeting planner yesterday who told me the story that I think sums up meeting stupidity. A huge corporation booked a known comedian for a corporate event. This was a very well known comedian… a person who at one time had their own TV show, and had plenty of tape on HBO and the Comedy Channel. Anybody… and I mean ANYBODY who has seen even 23 seconds of this comedian gets the accurate impression that they don’t work clean.

It was more than an occasional curse word. It was the whole act. Sex. Genders. Ethnicity. Curse words. Making fun of nearly every group. Predictably (in my opinion), five minutes after the comedian started the show at the convention, the CEO walked on stage and personally escorted the act off the stage. The full fee was paid, the audience was shocked, and the CEO probably had a fit with whoever booked that act. (And the comedian probably wondered, “Why in the world did they book me if they didn’t want me to do my thing?”)

My question was this: What did they expect? There are a ton of great corporate comedians who work 100% clean and are both professional and hilarious. But it is up to the meeting planner — or whomever is booking the speaker — to check to see if they are clean. And if you have any doubts… keep asking questions until you know you have a speaker that you know will be more than funny you want a speaker who understands corporate, government and association audiences.

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