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Fun in workplace eases tensions, promotes unity and adds spirit, she says.
By Anita Bruzzese
Gannett
News Service
January 22, 2003
With layoffs, pay freezes and downsizings, the American workplace is about as fun
as an ingrown toenail. Add the threat of war, an economy that seems to have stalled and crooked CEOs, and you have a recipe
for morale going right down the toilet.
But Yvonne Conte, author and speaker on improving the spirit of work through laughter,
says it's time we all took fun seriously. It's time we began each day with a laugh in order to balance out those times that
aren't so amusing, like finding out your e-mail has been erased accidentally by a new techie.
But Conte admits that isn't
easy, as many workers find themselves without jobs after years of dedicated service.
"People don't want to start over,"
she says. "But what I would tell these people is that life is a choice. Stuff happens to everyone at different levels. Pain
is inevitable, suffering is optional. We can look forward."
Even those who are left behind -- the workplace survivors --
should realize they don't have to feel guilty because they have jobs, while a co-worker doesn't. Even right after the terrorist
attacks, she said people were "needy" to have something to laugh or smile about, and "they really needed someone to say it
was OK to be happy."
"I'm not just talking about putting on a clown nose and walking around the office to get people to
laugh," says Conte, director of Crack-A-Smile Seminars (www.crack-a-smile.com). "The message is that it's the spirit of the
place that's important. Be kind. Be understanding. Be compassionate. Be truly interested in your client. Care about that person's
life."
It's that atmosphere of kindness, she says, that makes it so much easier to do everything in life, including work.
"We
were so much better off doing what our parents told us to do," she says. "Showing respect, having good manners, being generous,
sharing and loving one another were all good advice."
At the same time, Conte believes that it is a true kindness if you
can get others to have a good time along with you. Perhaps your boss is a grump, or maybe you'd just like to get a belly laugh
out of a co-worker. It doesn't matter why you need to laugh. What matters is that you have more fun in your life, and drag
others along with you.
Some ideas:
- Two truths and a lie. Get a group together for lunch. Each person must tell two things that are true
about him- or herself, and one lie. The group must figure out which is the untruth. This helps you get to know one another
better.
- Post funny cartoons. Not just the one that relates to the workplace,
but anything fun and silly about life.
- Start a lunch group. Each person cooks for the others once a week.
It's a way to share the duty while enjoying new foods.
- Put rubber fish in the water cooler.
- Post a difficult crossword puzzle and let everyone contribute an answer.
If you get them all right by the end of the week, order pizza.
- Share the magic. Anyone who goes on vacation has to bring back a souvenir
for the office -- of course, nothing offensive. The office could start a collection of snow globes, stuffed animals or mugs.
- The whiner's cup. Make anyone caught whining contribute a quarter.
When your jar gets full, use it to do something fun, like buy everyone a lottery ticket or a hot fudge sundae.
We all need humor - more than ever
"You can turn painful situations around
through laughter. If you can find humor in anything, you can survive it." Bill Cosby
People pull from grab bag of personal resources to deal with their
burdens. Humor, while it comes in various forms, is a universal coping skill. Humor expert, seminar leader and director of
FUN for Crack-A-Smile Seminars (www.crack-a-smile.com), Yvonne Conte, has built a career on making people laugh and helping
them experience the healing aspects of humor.
In her book, Serious Laughter: a guidebook to a happier, healthier,
more productive life, Conte highlights the physical benefits of laughing-blood pressure drops, heart rate lowers and
good health is promoted. Her list grows longer when considering the additional benefits of laughter and humor in
the workplace-promotes teamwork, builds confidence, helps prevent burnout, reduces fear, stimulates creativity and brings
people together.
To find out if you personally are suffering from lack of humor, take
Yvonne Conte's Humor Deficiency Quiz by responding yes or no to the following statements:
- I find myself laughing out loud throughout the day.
- I joke about my shortcomings.
- Many of my friends are really funny.
- I'm occasionally silly and do things just for fun.
- I see a lot of comedies when I go to the movies.
If most or all of these statements apply to you, you are humor healthy.
If you did not respond affirmatively to most of the statements, you may be severely humor deprived and in need of a transfusion.
According to Conte, offices and boardrooms are filled with serious people, suffering from acute terminal professionalism.
Conte maintains, "They're so uptight not because they have no sense of humor but because they've been conditioned to believe
they have to be dead serious to be respected and successful. That is just not the case, so relax!"
To tickle your funny bone, figure out what really makes you laugh and
build in time for your amusements. Also, practice being funnier yourself. For a jumpstart in the humor department, Conte offers
Steps to a Humor Filled Life:
- Keep really funny people in your life. Make friends with people at
work who are amusing, and stay connected to the funny friends you have.
- Start a humor library. Read books by or about comedians. Start a file
of cartoons.
- Be silly once in a while at work. Keep toys and things that make you
smile at the office.
- Watch funny movies and TV shows. Rent some classic videos, like the
Marx Brothers.
- Attend fun-filled events. Hire a stand up comic for your next work
function. Create a humor break room at work. Post cartoons. Learn to laugh with others and at yourself.
- Make other people happy. Send a humor first aid kit to a co-worker
in need. Do something for someone and expect nothing in return.
Having been to Yvonne Conte's seminars, I can tell you that I laughed
out loud with a room full of people for an hour straight and it felt great. While humor can't solve all your problems, it
certainly puts you in a better frame of mind to face them.
Expert says laughter is good for you,
And she has the stats
to back that up!
A 20-second belly laugh gives you as much exercise as three
minutes of strenuous rowing, says Yvonne Conte, an expert in the field of humor.
What's more, "When we laugh out
loud, 16 major organs are positively affected in our body. It puts us in a better mood." Conte told a crowd at Evangelical
Community Hospital in Lewisburg.
Other tidbits on a good guffaw from Conte, a graduate of Saint Cyril Academy in Danville:
"Little kids laugh up to 400 times a day. By the time we reach
35, we laugh up to 15 times a day."
She wears a red clown nose to get through difficult situations. She and a
companion donned the noses recently while crammed into a train compartment with four strangers in Spain. "The clown noses
got us through the moment," she said.
So if laughter makes you healthier, feel better, be stronger, and all in all live a better life,
why not do it? I challenge everyone to try to laugh at least 20 times a day! Start now! What kind
of gum do bees chew? Bumble gum! Have a great day!
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