Leveraging laughs

Is your boss a "humour initiator"? That's the question posed by a new book - The Levity Effect: Why it Pays to Lighten Up by Adrian Gostick and Scott Christopher (John Wiley & Sons, £12.99) - that recently landed on my desk and performed a little tap dance. The modern leader, its writers argue, should be able to wisecrack their way through difficult situations to give those around them a boost. Some companies seem to riding at the front of the japes 'n' giggles bandwagon already, but I wondered whether their employees are really rolling in the aisles or contemplating a swift exit. Among the culprits are...

Intuit, a software company, has a "fun committee" that organises potluck breakfasts among providing other opportunities for levity; Enterprise Rent-A-Car employees are apparently known to do the "happy dance"; executives at Scripps Networks, a media company, indulge their inner kid with bursts of karaoke and tricycle races; and last but not least, "funsters" lurk in the corridors of AstraZeneca handing out toys, dancing and telling jokes. Yikes.

Most puzzling perhaps is Amy's Ice Cream that asks its employees to do something creative with a paper bag (when exactly?). I'll hazard a guess that putting it on your head and pretending to work somewhere else isn't quite in the spirit of the game. The excruciating list of organisations with a funny bone just goes on and on and on.

Bring on The Gravity Effect, please. And be quick about it.

Comments

[Marie Borard]

Does the name 'David Brent' mean anything to these people?

"I'm a friend first, boss second, probably an entertainer third"