Laugh a little, and see how your company might benefit

Laughter and humor not only are good for people, but they are healthy for companies. That's why February is National Laugh Friendly month.

I've always thought that kidding around at work is a good thing, and I've encouraged it for years at our envelope-manufacturing company. We don't start a sales meeting without a good, tasteful joke.

Last fall, I saw the results of a study by a University of Missouri-Columbia researcher who examined how humor affects the working environment. Chris Robert, an assistant professor of management, said that humor -- particularly joking around about things associated with the job -- actually has a positive effect on the workplace. Occasional humor among colleagues, he said, enhances creativity, department cohesiveness and overall performance.

"Humor is pretty important," Robert said. "It has meaningful impact on cohesiveness in the workplace and communication quality among workers. The ability to appreciate humor, the ability to laugh and make other people laugh actually has physiological effects on the body that cause people to become more bonded."

I remember seeing a short article in the Harvard Business Review a few years ago that confirmed a belief I've held for years. I've always felt that humor is the unrecognized indicator of any business' true condition. The magazine pointed out how humor was the great, hidden metric for measuring a company's healthiness or lack thereof. It's seldom recognized or thought of when analyzing businesses.

Everyone knows and can recognize the difference between humor that's affectionate and humor that's a dig. Every organization, every team, every group has malcontents and naysayers who drag down esprit de corps. It's a good idea, especially in business, to eliminate such people. Their negativity ultimately infects others and hurts morale, and, as a corollary, productivity.

Good managers monitor humor. You can learn plenty about your employees through cartoons posted on bulletin boards, jokes circulated via e-mail and caustic remarks made in meetings. You only have to look at classic movies such as "Mister Roberts" or "The Caine Mutiny" to see what devastating effects a bad boss can have on morale.

Managers who are remote never learn this lesson. They ignore company humor. They never walk through the plant or office. When they shun close contact with employees, even those in the most basic positions, they cut themselves off from real knowledge: how the enterprise is doing in the hearts and minds of its most important constituents -- the people working for it.

Fostering positive companywide humor should be part of management's responsibility. Good managers pay attention to their employees.

Mackay's Moral: Humor in business is no joke.