Laughter Works

As the CEO of lotus, manufacturer of computer software, interviewer of job candidates, he looks for people who can laugh out loud. At the headquarters of ice-cream maker Ben & Jerry's the "Minister of Joy" supervises the "Joy Gang", which has the job of spending $10 000 a year planning and implementing workplace fun. Odetics, maker of video security systems and other recording equipment, considered it an honor when Industry Week called it "the wackiest place to work in the U.S.". In corporate America today, humor is a serious business. Workers have been downsized, re-engineered, restructured, and overworked for so long they have forgotten how to smile and laugh. To remind them, companies are posting amusing notes and cartoons on bulletin boards, building libraries of humorous books for workers to read, sponsoring "fun at work" days, "laughter" committees, and even hiring specialists. As a result, the corporate humor business has taken off. A "humor services" group, called Humor Project, reports that it receives about twenty requests each day from companies looking for humor consultants. The Laughter Remedy, an organization that teaches the benefits of humor, helps employees build "humor skills" through a program that includes such steps as "developing the ability to play with language" and "finding humor in every day life." Humor consultant Paul McGhee gives audiences "remedial belly laughing" lessons. He tells them to smile, squint, raise their eyebrows, lower their jaws, tighten their stomach muscles, and laugh. Speakers from Lighten Up Limited, a humor consulting firm, urge workers to tell jokes and take humor breaks. In their search for comic relief, organizations are spending thousands of dollars. Humor consultant Matt Weinstein, for example, receives $7 500 for a ninety-minute talk.

Why all the fuss and expense over an activity that seems contrary to the work ethic? One recent study reports that the most productive workplaces have at least ten minutes of laughter every hour. And corporations that have added humor to workplace report an increase not only in productivity but also in employee loyalty, creativity, and morale, as well as improved teamwork and employee health.