Is laughter the sound of a happy, productive workplace? Adam McCulloch, in his latest piece looking at the light-hearted side of HR, smirks at the issue and sneers about Finland topping the world happiness index yet again
In wary old HR, where “jokes” can lead to lengthy employment tribunal proceedings, laughter can be problematic – and alerts our antennae to potential liabilities and risk. Grinning is easier to deal with from a legal point of view, but secret smiles are best.
Employment website Monster has decided to look more deeply at humour in the workplace and finds, unsurprisingly, that “laughter is still common at work, even as workplaces grow more serious”. Well if you don’t laugh you’d cry, as they say.
Monster’s Workplace Laughter Report, reveals that nearly all workers agree that laughter reduces stress (96%) and helps them feel more connected to coworkers (95%).
“Humour is one of the fastest ways to build trust, but it is also one of the quickest ways to feel exposed at work,” said Vicki Salemi, Monster career expert. But, she noted that these days “people are calibrating carefully based on who is listening, what feels safe, and what could be misread.”
The Personnel Today office was intrigued over the finding that 76% say they are less likely to be jokey when senior leadership is in the room and are happier letting the boss lead the laughs. This brings us to performative laughter; Monster found that 57% have laughed at a joke at work they didn’t actually find funny.
Not having a sense of humour could be detrimental to one’s career – but perhaps in some workplaces it may be perceived as a career advantage. Those strategic thinkers who believe this may account for the 69% who hold back humour out of concern they could seem less professional or less credible, Monster finds.
Humour modulates between nations and cultures. Us Brits pride ourselves on our giggle game. But alas, we are 29th in the happy country index. Top, for the ninth time in a row, is Finland.
Did Monty Python, Dad’s Army, Alan Partridge and the Morecambe and Wise show originate in Helsinki we ask?
No, so what is the secret behind this perennial happiness?
Finland’s happiness triumph
Miika Mäkitalo, CEO of HappyOrNot, “makers of the ubiquitous smiley-faced feedback buttons you might recognise from airports and retail spaces around the world” (nope, me neither), says in response to his country’s customary win: “Creating a happy workplace is not about pay and perks, but about designing systems that give people genuine autonomy over their working lives.” Tell another one Miika!
It turns out that it’s not humour but employment law that makes the country happy. Finland introduced the Working Hours Act in 1996, which enabled structured flexitime agreements at a time when flexibility elsewhere in Europe was largely informal or employer-led. In 2020, the Act was expanded to enhance employees’ ability to determine when and where at least half of their working time is carried out.
Furthermore, it is said Finnish workplace legislation is underpinned by a sense of mutual trust, and a less hierarchical structure with employees trusted to manage their time and deliver outcomes, rather than being closely supervised. That autonomy is strongly correlated with high workplace engagement and lower workplace stress. Not much for us Brits to chortle at then.
Joking aside
OK, OK, after nine years on top of the happiness index we get it. Finland isn’t all endless forests, lakes, dark winters and Lonkero shots. These are quietly happy people.
But what of their actual jokes? Let’s try a couple, as presented by the website Very Finnish Problems. Here goes:
A Swede and a Finn are fishing and drinking. After seven bottles, the Swede asks, “How’s the family?”
The Finn replies, “Did we come here to talk, or did we come here to drink?”
Nice. And then there’s:
How do you spot an extrovert Finn? When he talks to you, he looks at your shoes instead of his own.
Finnish humour, says the website, is rarely about punchlines. “The Finnish sense of humour runs on precision, understatement and the quiet confidence that if something is absurd, you do not need to exaggerate it. You simply describe it properly.”
Perhaps if your boss is a Finn, keep the guffawing down a bit (and ask for flexible working).
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