by Lesley Mason

Created on: August 08, 2011

We all need humour.  Laughter lightens our day, makes us smile, enables us to take the pressure a little less seriously.  When everything in the workplace isn't exactly rosy, we need to remember that there is still fun and frivolity to be found if we'll take a sideways look at the world.

We need jokes, witticisms, satire.

What's wrong with sharing a bit of banter with your mates to get you through the day?

The problem with humour

The problem with jokes, witticisms and satire is that the vast majority of them are at someone's expense: from the clown slipping on the banana skin to the subtleties of Dickens' Mr Gradgrind via every stand-up and sketch-show on the planet, someone has to be the butt of the joke. 

The Germans have a word for it: Schadenfreude.  The joy at others' misfortune.  Although in English (and probably also in German) that word has a negative connotation, meaning a genuine joy at someone's heartfelt hurt, at its root it describes all humour.

Many also play upon stereotypes:  the Jewish mother, the Arab terrorist, the Irish Navvy, the retired English colonel, the Essex girl, the frugal Scot, the stupid peasant(nationality optional), the greedy banker, the Bishop and the Actress, the religious (name your faith, they all cop it), … the list goes on. 

The problem with stereotypes is that we all fall into one or more of them (accountants, lawyers, doctors, builders, white-van-drivers, pigmen, fishermen, downtrodden wives, feisty career girls, patriots, peaceniks, teachers, students, cops, robbers).  The other problem is that there would be no such thing as a "stereotype" if the type-casting weren't, to some degree, true.

And the problem with that is: sooner or later the person hearing the joke will be the butt of it.  And they might take offense.

But is it harassment?

So you don't like your colleagues' sense of humour.  In fact you find the sexist / racist / regionalist / anti-disability / homophobic / (whatever) tone of some of their so-called hilarity downright offensive.  This might be because you fall into the "butt" category, but might equally be because the tone & content is either extreme or continuous or simply offends what you consider to be generally accepted standards of respect due to people in the workplace.  Do you have to put up with this?

The simple answer is: No, you don't. 

Any workplace worth its salt will have a mechanism for dealing with disrespectful

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