Laughter in the workplace

I had a birthday party at the weekend, and had a bit over a dozen friends over to our flat. Most were there for the first time, as we haven’t been there that long, and house parties aren’t a massive thing where I live. You tend to meet people out rather than hosting.

One of the things that people noticed was two cupboards filled with books by my favourite author, the late Sir Terry Pratchett. I have his entire collection, nicely arranged chronologically in two rows.

I’ve read Pratchett since my early teens, and still regularly default to his books if I can’t think of anything else to read. I have most of his books on kindle now too, so I can always pick one up. 

His books are nominally fantasy, but tend to bounce around between satire, farce, and philosophy. His books feature one of the most popular theories of economic inequality, and the best joke ever written about a murderous elf being thrown down a toilet.

When Pratchett died, I hadn’t gotten around to reading his last book. I put it off for a long time, making an excuse to read everything else in order before I got to it. I remember closing it, looking up at my wife, who is also a fan, and saying an honest sentiment.

“I guess I need to figure out the rest for myself.”

You see, Pratchett taught me a lot. 

He taught me about the depth of storytelling, and understanding how to mine books and movies for inspiration. I’ve discovered whole genres by trying to understand his references.

He wrote about dwarves and werewolves, but taught me about humanity. He was an expert in taking tropes that were traditionally goodie vs. baddie, and finding the shades of grey in them. Like a battle between a fairy godmother and the wicked old witch, where one believes she is good because that’s her role.

Most importantly, Pratchett taught me that there’s a gag in everything. Even now when I review fiction that my friends write, even in the darkest stories my most common comment is “You missed a chance for a pun there.”

And how does that relate to the workplace? I had the chance to connect with an ex-colleague recently, someone who I always respected for being a serious business person. They surprised me by signing off saying that they missed my humour in meetings.

I was a bit taken aback by this, and honestly quite touched. I said as much, and they paid me one of the nicest compliments that I think I’ve ever had. 

That even in a tough role, in an unforgiving environment, I never lost my sense of humour, and that this was the sign of a true professional. 

I’m pretty sure I knew where I learned that from….

I had the pleasure to watch one of the most successful CEOs in the Nordics talk recently. One of the biggest lessons she spoke about was that a team that laughs together, trusts each other. 

If you are spending most of your weekdays with the same people, you really should be able to enjoy each other’s company, and be able to poke fun at things that go wrong. You should be able to laugh at yourself to defuse tension, and be willing to rib people when they do something daft.

If you can’t do that when the pressure is off, then you certainly won’t be able to point out to the Emperor that their new clothes are actually not there.