Five ways to put humour front and centre at work

I've been working in the financial services industry for more than 27 years and I've learned that leaders and people with a sense of humour are the most productive, most respected and typically run the most engaged workforce.

Why? Well, aside from the obvious fact that it's probably more fun, employees with a sense of humour are more effective on the job than people with little or no sense of humour. This is according to 84 per cent of vice-presidents and personnel directors in 100 of the largest American corporations who were surveyed in the 1980s by recruitment agency Robert Half International.

"People with a sense of humour tend to be more creative, less rigid and more willing to consider and embrace new ideas and methods," the survey said.

Still, many companies - and individuals - believe work and fun should never be mixed. They couldn't be more wrong.

Leaders and organisations cannot just worry about efficiency. People have emotions, personalities and paranoia about what other people might think of them. Efficiency doesn't work for people - it works for processes.

Dr Yue Xiao-dong, associate professor at City University's department of applied social sciences, says: "Humour, according to psychologists, is a playful frame of mind that gives individuals a feeling of well-being, better thinking skills and pain relief."