How To Master Office Humour

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How to... master office humour

It's a funny old business

The workplace is a great source of jokes, and a stage for jokers, provided you avoid politics and sex, say the experts. Daniel Allen presents a guide to making the most of humour at work

WHAT did the mayonnaise say to the fridge? Close the door, I'm dressing. This is what's known as a joke. Not the best - the best joke in the world is about two men hunting - but a joke nonetheless; harmless and nothing to fear. Workplace humour is trickier: too much becomes tiresome; too little and your office resembles a graveyard. Follow these tips and colleagues will laugh with you; ignore them and they'll beat you to bits with your "You don't have to be mad to work here but it helps" sign. 1. Timing . It's important to have fun at work, says Mike Petrook, the public affairs manager of the Chartered Management Institute, but only at the right time. "Do it too often and people won't take you seriously." 2. Know your audience . And even when you do, tread carefully. Lakshmi Balachandra, a former stand-up comic, teaches improvisation and other comedy-club skills to MBA students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management. She says: "Do nothing political, unless you know which way your audience leans, and do nothing, absolutely nothing, sexual." 3. Don't peak too soon . Steve Myers, a managing partner of Team Technology, says that humour used early in meetings is a good way to build rapport and ease tension. "People are then more willing to listen to you." But not too early, Balachandra says. "You don't want to develop the negative connotation of being a jokester." Mark Tyrrell, a director of Uncommon Knowledge, a training organisation, agrees. "Don't use humour prematurely. There's a need to establish your kudos and gravitas." 4. Don't sneer . Avoid superiority jokes, Myers says. They can backfire. Don't make jokes at a colleague's expense. "Not funny and not cool," Balachandra says. 5. But seriously . Tyrrell says that staff should not be afraid to use humour to illustrate serious points. "There's an assumption that humour is not profound," he says. On the contrary, it can help to "reframe" reality. "When you experience something from a different perspective, then other factors become illuminated." 6. Be a woman . Research by the Hay Group found that women are more likely to use complimentary or positive humour, whereas men are more sarcastic and use humour to maintain hierarchies. Get it right and humour could make you rich, says Jonathan Cormack, a managing consultant with the Hay Group. The research found that the people who use humour often and appropriately earn bigger bonuses. 7. Ho ho . "Be prepared to laugh at yourself," Myers says. It makes you appear human and is a sign of maturity and self-esteem. 8. Have a go . You've nothing to lose by using humour except your job, your mortgage, your house and your friends - but don't let that put you off. "You need to experiment with what works and what doesn't," Tyrrell says. 9. Keep it short . Enough said. 10. Duck . In trying to find the funniest joke in the world, Laugh Lab unearthed some interesting facts. People rate animal jokes highly and duck jokes higher still. The time that you tell the joke is crucial - if you want them rolling in the aisles, do your duck joke at 6.03pm on October 7. Plenty of time to practise.