I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about humor and its role in the workplace.  I say, always hire someone with a sense of humor.  A sense of humor is critical to productivity and is a sign of intelligence.  Hire a funny person. You won’t be disappointed.

To me, a good sense of humor requires mental sharpness, alacrity, concentration, and a nimble mind.  To be funny, you have to be able to think on your feet, look, listen, observe, and be focused on what’s happening in the present moment.  You also have to mentally stay three steps ahead of everyone else so that a funny retort can be delivered with perfect timing.  You have to pay attention to be funny.  And all those skills help you be good at what you do, whatever your area of expertise. 

You’ve got to have a brain to be funny.  You have to actively think about life and its foibles.  You have to care about the world, keep up with current events, and ask yourself why people do what they do.  A sense of humor shows that you can think both logically and laterally.  You don’t just look at what’s right in front of you, you look at ideas related to the topic at hand.  You compare and contrast ideas.  It’s that attitude that I think is at the heart of the true creative spirit.  And if you can think creatively you’re going to be a problem-solver for your employer. 

Bill Murray said it best, and I’m paraphrasing, “Anyone can play a straight character, but to be funny, I mean genuinely funny, that takes talent.”  I totally agree.  

Humor keeps people awake.  A person with a sense of humor helps distract others from the doldrums of the every day grind and get the mental juices flowing better than any double latte. 

Funny people are an office’s own little brainstorm starter.  Their unique ways of looking at the world often provides the spark to kindle one hundred new ideas.  Some of the greatest inventions were discovered when the creator was trying to make something entirely different.  Humor can be that catalyst for sideways thinking that creates new results.

I get it, you don’t want to be a joke-a-minute Buddy Hackett type who doesn’t know when to shut up.  No one wants to be around a jackass like that.  But a little tasteful humor interjected in small doses keeps people from snoozing at their desk.  Humor gets the blood flowing. 

Some people seem to fear humor.  Funny people are always coming up with things out of left field and that makes them difficult to predict.  That makes some people uncomfortable.  Funny people are unpredictable by nature because they are always a step ahead of the crowd.  They have the end figured out before everyone else.  That’s what it takes to be thoughtful in the workplace and it’s also what it takes to be funny. 

Funny people are hard to categorize, label, or put in a box.  Because to stay consistently funny, you have to think in fresh ways.  But, isn’t fresh thinking one of the keys to staying on top in business?  

Funny people are the best to hang around and the best to have on your team.  Hire a funny person.  There’s nothing to fear. To hell with being predictable.  Someone without a sense of humor – now that’s truly someone to be scared of.