Food for Thought: On Jokes, Work and Gender

In the right frame of mind, I might have well found the above ‘joke’ incredibly hilarious. But not today; DEFINITELY not today.

As a person who rarely ever shuts up and cracks jokes all the time (or at least tries to), I have often been warned by my friends (you thought I was going to say ‘employers’, didn’t you? Well, joke’s on you!) that my pseudo- funny anecdotes can backfire, and with some considerably destructive force.

It must be noted that the above illustration might be deemed as quite unacceptable by some employers. Indeed, some 39% of company directors polled consider that there is no place for jokes at the workplace (anonymous source, veeery secretive, I know).

To be honest, the above depiction of ‘day at work’ can wind any manager up; after all, in today’s pyramid structure, a supervisor’s role is to make sure that employees are using their time productively.

On the other hand, a supervisor must also minimise stress levels in her team by ensuring that employees are presented with a working environment that is both challenging and friendly.

A brilliant way of doing that is through your sense of humour; but how is a woman to do that when people just don’t get her jokes?

Pray, don’t stop reading just yet; I’m not being horrible or sexist. I am merely referring to yet another ludicrous and shallow article of Ms. Lucy Kellaway’s,

‘Heard the one about women at the office?’ << http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bbe38088-34a3-11e2-8b86-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2IELGyAoB >>

To cut a long story short, Ms. Kellaway points out that no- one laughs at women’s jokes at work as they are ‘too self-deprecating, and often ended up sounding defensive or downright horrid’ .

Men’s jokes, on the other hand, she dubbed as ‘flippant quips and rough banter’ and, therefore, hilarious (if you don’t see the causal link, that’s because there isn’t one…)

First and foremost, let me ask you this: what is this, the eighteenth century?

We live in a world when generalising is unacceptable; and here is someone who is trying to explain, nay, DEFEND, women’s behavioral patterns at the workplace.

And how does she do it? By calling men blunt and women defenseless; rather sexist, don’t you think?

Also, let me stress that the developed world has long moved away from labeling and blaming the opposite sex.

The sense of humour has NOTHING to do with gender; in fact, I have met and know a fair number of women who are a lot blunter and more obscene than me and say things that I have never even dreamt of thinking about (no, I shall neither elaborate nor give you their numbers).

Instead of attacking the opposite sex, why not come up with a reasonable explanation of the Ms. Kellaway’s scenario? What if, say, her female protagonist simply had a rather drier and more sophisticated sense of humour than EVERYONE else (both male and female)?

Also, many men in the workplace numb down their bluntness so that they do not offend women in any way; it might initially sound rather bizarre but why don’t women do the same and numb down their sophistication so that they can more easily communicate with their male co- workers?

Well, you might be surprised to know that the above has been happening for quite some time now; humour at the workplace is SITUATIONAL- you can use different jokes at a different time and place. In fact, statistics show that companies who are encouraging sense of humour and the use of jokes as a medium tend to outperform their competitors, especially in employee satisfaction.

In the light of the above, the workplace must not be a battlefield of yet another war of the sexes; those times are long gone.

It’s not about gender equality anymore; it’s about making compromises.

With regards to jokes, do be careful and never say or post things that could get you in trouble.

P.S. Worry not, we use jokes as currency around here.