Fun In The Workplace

April 7, 2011

Interview with Scott Christopher, co-author of the book The Levity Effect: Why it Pays to Lighten Up

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Mike Carruthers:
The work you do may be serious business but the work environment doesn't have to be.

Scott Christopher:
We've found that those who possess a sense of humor (or at least an ability to appreciate humor) climb the corporate ladder quicker and they actually end up making a little more money.
 

Scott Christopher, co-author of the book The Levity Effect...

The vast majority of people look at levity and they say, "Ooh it has no place at work - now we're very serious about our mission here at ACME Rivet and Bolt." The fact of the matter is that most people will never suffer from having too much fun in their workplace.

Obviously there has to be rules and appropriate behavior but laughter DOES have a place in the workplace.

It's great for the brain. Your body's more oxygenated - when people are lightened up, when they're relaxed they tend to do better work.

In his research, Scott looked at the list of the best 100 companies in America to work for and found that humor and levity play a big part in their success.

In fact they did a little bit of research and they said if you were to take your retirement funds, (your investment) and put it into the best places to work at a company over a five year period, you actually get a five times greater return than if you just left it in the S&P five hundred. So, these companies that are considered great places to work actually out-perform other companies and a big factor to that is this sense of levity within the actual workplace.