triangle.com | Home

I was speaking with a friend of mine recently who had quit his job with a “Fortune 500” company in RTP. He didn’t really give me any of the specifics as to why he tendered his resignation but I am aware of a few changes that have occurred in his office within the last year. In the past, he has told me of the good times and frequent pranks he and his office mates have shared. Morale was high and the group enjoyed being together. However, about six months ago his immediate supervisor retired and was replaced by a woman wanting to climb the corporate ladder of success. He said that the lady was so ill that she resembled a constipated pit viper. So much for morale…

Today, it seems that the corporate office is quickly becoming a sanctuary for complete boredom. No longer do whimsical anecdotes and light-hearted humor grace the break rooms and hallways of government or business. The days of the corporate comedian and others like them are numbered.

In these days of lawsuits and humorless CEOs, the position of company clown is not one to be envious of. The ingenious employee, formerly known as “Rudolph the Brown-Nosed Fast Tracker,” is straight faced, conservative and always prepared to cast a cold-hearted scowl on anyone attempting a cheap laugh. If this sinister trend toward the promotion of permanent frowns in the boardroom does not cease, Psychologists and Psychiatrists can look forward to an alarming boom in business.

I can remember a time, not too long ago, when co-workers and others would arrive for meetings up to an hour early, so that they could schmooze or make small talk with their friends. Fellow employees would sit around in each other’s office during breaks and tell jokes over their morning coffee. Those days will be sorely missed. There will come a time when the lack of atmospheres such as these will cost companies more than they bargained for.

Humor in the office setting is quickly becoming career threatening to those of us with some semblance of a funny bone. Saying something funny in a crowd that the boss overhears and considers in poor taste or laughing at a scenario you may find hilarious can now cost you that treasured promotion and in some instances your job.

Personally, I can’t stand to be around jerks that wouldn’t laugh if the preacher’s wife were to break wind in the middle of Sunday services. How do people like that live with their selves?

As you can probably guess, I have been “taken to the woodshed,” a.k.a. the boss’s office, on occasion over my own antics. I’ve been accused of pulling small pranks at the wrong time; making off had comments about the sexual preference of co-workers and even once setting off a stink bomb in the office janitors closet. That one was a real gas!

I am of the opinion that executives and managers in the corporate setting are wound up tighter than a wino down to his last swig of Thunderbird. Laughter calms the nerves and releases stress that builds up in our systems from the day-to-day rat race. A few of us know that to be true. However, the power brokers that call the shots have forgotten it.