Boosting Morale
It's a common theme. An organization keeps cutting staff until the people left feel like they can't cope anymore. Unfortunately, the organization I’m thinking of didn't take into account what this would do to the morale of the "survivors."Management was unwilling to listen to their concerns, and when anyone did voice them, they were labeled as disloyal. Teamwork plummeted, with employees adopting a "me first" attitude. The office atmosphere was poisonous, rife with gossip, rumors, and backstabbing.
"This feels like hell. I’d never recommend this company to anyone, and I just hope I can survive until I take early retirement," said one long-term employee.
Like the team of welfare workers, this group found themselves in a bad situation over which they had no control. Sadly though, members were not encouraged to make use of humor, the one coping mechanism they had left.
Instead, management saw it as a frivolous waste of time, a sentiment which came to be echoed by the employees. "We're living in hell. We're too busy to laugh, and besides, it won't change anything, was a common refrain among employees with whom I talked. However, they were wrong.
According to Steve Lipman, who researched the use of humor during the Holocaust, "Wit produced on the precipice of hell was not frivolity but psychological necessity. Humor is one of the greatest gifts God gave mankind to pull itself out of despair."
In today's uncertain work environment, humor isn't an option, it's a necessary way to boost morale. When employees clown around, they’re not wasting valuable time, they're making use of one of the few tools available to increase and maintain their esprit de corps. Laughter may not change the external reality, but it can certainly help people survive it.
This has been proven in some pretty dire situations. Lipman cites an example of how a group of Auschwitz inmates put on vaudeville shows to provide laughter for the camp population. According to one, "We had to make jokes to save ourselves from deep depression."
Somehow these people, on the brink of death, realized that their morale and survival depended on keeping their ability to laugh alive. As a group, they took the time and energy to make it happen.
Even though nothing could be as horrible as Auschwitz, people in almost all workplaces can learn from this example. Take the time and energy to share humor. Those brave concentration camp inmates proved that humor is a choice, and no matter how much adversity people face, whether at work or in their personal lives, they can still choose laughter. In fact, the worse a situation gets, the more important it becomes to make that choice.
Making Humor Happen In Your Organization
So what can organizations do to encourage the use of humor as a coping mechanism? On a recent trip, I flew on WestJet Airlines, and found that the crew had turned the usually boring safety announcement into a stand-up comedy routine. My favorite line was, "The floor lighting will come on in the event of an emergency landing or a disco revival."Upon inquiring, I learned that the CEO of WestJet believes that work should be fun. He sets precedents through his own behavior, and by encouraging employees to enjoy their jobs. He makes it safe for the people he employs to use humor by leading the way.
And the payoff? All WestJet employees I spoke to said how much they loved working for the company because it was so much fun. And their enjoyment was reflected in great service to the passengers. They expressed their appreciation of the humor and their intention to continue flying WestJet.
<b>In order to help employees use humor, organizations need to provide them with the tools and to set an example.</b> When I worked at the Vancouver Crisis Center, we started every training group with an exercise called "the rubber chicken toss." We also provided crisis counselors with baskets of toys to use as stress-busters, and made it clear that humor was encouraged as part of our organizational culture.
These relatively inexpensive interventions did nothing to change the adversity we faced, but they did create an atmosphere in which going to work was fun.
I often had crisis line workers tell me that one of the reasons they kept coming back was because of how much fun they had. And if a crisis line, where workers regularly deal with suicide can be made fun, so can any workplace.
Read more about boosting morale and retaining employees with the use of humor.
