The Hump Day Humor-Gram

Good Deeds at Work Pay Off in Good Deeds!

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 Michael Kerr

Play it Forward? Research Says Good Deeds Are Good, Indeed!

Researchers from the University of California and Harvard

University found that kind acts really are contagious.

When a person receives a gift or favor, they are more likely

to be generous and pass along an even bigger gift to someone

else. The researchers found that one good act was often the

catalyst for three more good acts.

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Mike’s Fun at Work Tip

It’s St. Patrick’s Day so here are three simple ways you can

celebrate:

- Award a prize to the greenest employee or customer

- Hold a St. Patrick’s Day trivia quiz

- Award a prize for the best Irish accent

Got to http://www.wikihow.com/Celebrate-St.-Patrick%27s-Day

for more ideas and a fun video on how to celebrate in style.

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Quote of the Week

“The Irish treat a serious thing as a joke, and a joke as a

serious thing.” Sean O’Casey

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It’s a Wacky, Wacky World

In case you forgot, the Irish tradition of Kissing the

Blarney Stone is supposed to help you remove all your

shyness and give you the gift of the gab.

Happy hump day everyone. Keep laughing.

Stand up for the Economy?

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 Michael Kerr

Did You Hear the One About the Economist?

Yoram Bauman calls himself the “world’s only stand-up

economist.” Bauman has written a graphic novel, “The

Cartoon Introduction to Economics” and uses (gasp!) humor

to teach economic theory. Yes, this hilarious economist

(and you thought that was an oxymoron) can explain derivates

in a humorous way!

The lesson: if someone can make economic theory highly

entertaining then there’s no excuse NOT to make any of

your corporate messages a little more engaging, effective

and yes, even fun.

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Mike’s Fun at Work Tip

Hold a Friday afternoon “team huddle” and review everyone’s

“plays of the week” and accomplishments of the week as a way

to end the week on a high note, build momentum for the

following week and remind folks that you probably

accomplished more than you realized. Or not.

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Quote of the Week

“The stone age didn’t end because they ran out of stones.”

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It’s a Wacky, Wacky World

Today is the “International Day of Awesomeness Day!”

Simply awesome.

Annoying Co-Workers are Really Annoying

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 Michael Kerr

It’s “Inconvenience Yourself” day, a day set aside to

remind ourselves how often we inadvertently do something

that is inconvenient for others (like when I recently

had a problem with a certain company, and to remedy

the situation they decided it would be best to make

everything as inconvenient as possible for me, just,

you know, as a way of saying sorry).

Speaking of which, a recent survey of Canadian and

American workers suggests employees are getting

increasingly bugged by annoying colleagues. Some of the

top annoying habits included, in descending order of

votes: gossip, messiness in communal work areas, potent

scents, loud conversations, overuse of electronic devices

in meetings, loud cell phone ringtones, leaving the

kitchen in a mess, eating overly stinky food, shouting

across the room and taking supplies without asking.

Wow. It’s like a jungle out there! I’m so glad I work

alone.

Seriously, here’s one very simple thing you can do to try

and put a dent in the annoying habits in your workplace:

Conduct your own survey and post the results everywhere

and send them to everyone. Often a little self-awareness

is all it takes for people to stop being so darned annoying.

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Mike’s Fun at Work Tip

As a fun way to remind everyone to stay humble and human,

and to remind everyone we were all just goofy kids at some

point (and yes, some of you, with luck, still are) create a

wall of pictures of your team when they were children.

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Deep Thought of the Week

“Best way to become an old dog is to stop doing new tricks.”

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It’s a Wacky, Wacky World

It’s also Tortilla Chip day, so please don’t inconvenience

anyone else by eating the last tortilla chip.

Creative Brainstorming – Are You Out of Your Mind?

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 Michael Kerr

Creative Brainstorming for Creativity at Work:  Are You Out of Your Mind?

The Semco company, based in Brazil, has an official “Out of

Your Mind!” committee which meets to present “crazy” ideas

that don’t fit the agenda of a normal meeting. The guiding

principles of the committee are to present ideas based on

liberty, respect for others, the power of sharing, and the

sacred right of indolence. If other people DON’T respond

to your suggestion with a loud “You’re Out of Your mind!”

then the idea is considered too tame!

The committee has brought innovative programs to the

company with great success, such as the “Retire a little

bit” program, which allows employees to gradually cut back

on work and ease into retirement.

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Mike’s Fun at Work Tip

Try out what P.J. Salvage of Irvine, California does

each day at 3:00 p.m. and add a little civility to your

workplace with a tea and scone break. If every day is a

bit much then try it once a week. Pinky sipping is a must. ============================================================

Deep Thought of the Week

“Best way to become an old dog is to stop doing new tricks.”

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It’s a Wacky, Wacky World

Some bloopers from job seekers’ resumes: “Dear sir or

madman,” “I’m attacking my resume for review,” “My

interests include cooking dogs and interesting people,”

and “I was responsible for dissatisfied customers.”

Copyright Michael Kerr, 2010, Humor at Work,  www.humoratwork.com, www.humoratwork.tv

Manage Stress at Work with a Humor Flip Flop

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 Michael Kerr

Practice the Art of the Humor Flip Flop

A simple way to avoid feeling embarrassed and getting

stressed out during an awkward moment is to practice

pulling what I call a “humor flip-flop” – a quick mental

back flip if you will, that helps you reframe a stressful

event in a silly way. So, for example, if you trip in the

hallway, you can leap to your feet and confidently yell

out: “Wow! A 9.2 from the Hungarian judge. I’m off to the

Olympics everyone!” You can develop a repertoire of all

purpose flip flops as well, standard recovery lines much

in the same vein as comedians have ready when a joke bombs

or a heckler attacks. Lines such as, “Where’s my stunt

double when I really need them?”, “Is it tomorrow yet?”,

“I really didn’t order this”, or “It takes a very special

human being to do what I just did”, can all be used in any

number of situations. (and if you have any suggestions for

recovery lines, please pass them along and I’ll share

them with the gang.

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Mike’s Fun at Work Tip

Collect company legends, amazing success stories and funny

tales on video tape for posterity. The videos can be used

in your training, in employee orientation, to kick off a

meeting, or played as part of a team celebration. It can

be a fun way to capture your organization’s spirit, keep

your history alive, and instill a sense of pride in your

people.

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Quote of the Week

“You don’t stop laughing because you grow old, you grow old

because you stop laughing.”

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It’s a Wacky, Wacky World

This one just kills me: A British recruitment firm had an

ad rejected by a government job center because the ad

discriminated against people who “AREN’T reliable.” Yes,

their ad went too far by saying they were looking for

reliable people, because those poor unreliable people

would feel discriminated against! (Of course, if they

truly are unreliable, then you probably couldn’t even

count on them to mount an effective lawsuit anyways.)

Wow.

Humor in Ads and Fun at Work

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 Michael Kerr

Humor in Ads Shifts Behaviors Once Again

In an effort to keep wooing folks out of their cars and

onto public transit, L.A. Transit has resorted to using

the most effective weapon of all: humor. Ads featuring

“Miss Traffic” that tell transit users to wave and smile

at all the fuming drivers stuck in traffic, and a campaign

to select an official “Ms. Transit,” has helped increase

ridership by 29%, more than half the national average!

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Mike’s Fun at Work Tip

Create an outrageous theme day or promotion for your

customers to not only add fun to their experience (and

yours),but to get free publicity for your company or cause

you are trying to support. For example: Mike Veeck, part

owner of the St. Paul Saints baseball team has generated

massive amounts of publicity with his wacky theme nights,

including a Tonya Harding night (where she dropped by to

sign baseball bats) and an “Enron-theme” night, where paper

shredders were placed at the entrance gates, the attendance

figures were “adjusted” and the players stats on the boards

were all wrong. They even changed the distances on the

outfield fence! And if your name was Arthur or Anderson,

you got in for free. Brilliantly funny AND effective.

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Quote of the Week

“When people laugh together they cease to be young and old,

teacher and pupils, worker and boss. They become a single

group of human beings.” W. Lee Grant

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It’s a Wacky, Wacky World

You’ve likely seen the footage by now: Some zoo chimps were

given a “monkey-proof” video camera to record their very

own documentary. The footage will air as part of a BBC news

report. Two thoughts. Shouldn’t a monkey-proof camera be

the standard for us higher primates as well? And secondly,

wow, does this ever explain some movies I’ve seen recently. =========================================

Copyright Michael Kerr, 2010 www.humoratwork.com

The SarcMarc: Best Communication Tool EVER!

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 Michael Kerr

The Best Communication Tool EVER!

I’ve spoken before about how the written word does not smile.

In other words, our written correspondence (a fancy phrase

for e-mail, because really, when was the last time you

“corresponded”?)sometimes gets misinterpreted when we use

humor. Because people can’t see the twinkle in your eyes,

they don’t always get that you’re trying to be funny.

Triply so for the use of sarcasm (which comes from a

Greek word meaning “to tear at flesh like a dog”).

But now, with the new “sarcmarc” emoticon, you can let

People know when you are being sarcastic! This is the BEST

invention ever! It only costs $1.99 to download, which I

did, and planned to show you, except it won’t work with

my e-zine mail list program. So now this is the biggest

communication blunder ever! Seriously. Because now you

can’t even tell if I’m being sarcastic or not!

Watch the goofy video and download the sarcmarc at:

http://tiny.cc/8iuO1 Your co-workers will thank-you.

(Once again, am I being sarcastic? Hmmmmm.)

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Mike’s Fun at Work Tip

Employees of Jump Associates in San Mateo, California use

wire “voodoo doll” figurines with photos of employees

who work in other locations to remind themselves of the

bigger team. Every conference call they line up the dolls

to represent the people they are chatting with. (No word on

whether or not they stick needles into each other’s dolls,

but something like this is a simple, fun way put a face to

everyone in the company, especially when they are working

from afar.)

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Deep Thought of the Week (for “Mr. Safety Shoes”)

“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in

their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you’re a

mile away and you have their shoes.”

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It’s a Wacky, Wacky World

I hope you arrived at work on time today, because it’s

“Punch the Clock Day!” today! (Unless this means we are

supposed to physically beat up a clock?? That sounds mean.

And a little dangerous. Let’s go with the first meaning.)

Traits of Highly Creative People

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 Michael Kerr

AHA! Five Traits of People Who say AHA! a Lot

A study of 3,000 creative executives by Brigham Young

University suggests that if you want to be more creative

you should work on developing five skills that distinguish

highly creative people apart from not-so-creative types:

Read the rest of this entry »

Rudeness Sucking the Fun Out of Meetings

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 Michael Kerr

Is Rudeness Sucking the Fun Out of Your Meetings?

Just thought I’d ask, because I’m noticing more and more rude

behavior in meetings. Even in my talks people in the front

row will talk on their cell phones or text message! Now it

could be that I’m just boring the socks off them, but I tend

to think it’s a matter of simple manners, or lack thereof.

Seems I’m not alone. An OfficeTeam survey found that:

- 66% of workers say it’s impolite to use a smart phone

during a meeting

- 48% say BlackBerrys should be banned from meetings

- 24% say Blackberrys should be checked at the door

What do you think? Go to www.humoratwork.com for our poll:

Should electronic devices be banned from meetings?

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Mike’s Fun at Work Tip

Weave an unusual “word-of-the-day” into your next meeting in

order to win a prize from a co-worker. Two soap opera stars

from the Young and the Restless do this very game – where one

has to weave a word seamlessly into a scene to win a prize

(Okay, so I got bored in the checkout lane yesterday.)

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Quote of the Week

“If you give up having fun – you’re done!” Brenda Gooder

(Mike’s sister. And now she owes me ten bucks.)

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It’s a Wacky, Wacky World

Happy “Clean Off Your Desk Day” AND “Blame Someone Else Day.”

(So if you have a messy desk still at the end of today, I

guess you can blame someone else for it.)

Goal Setting and Workplace Motivation

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 Michael Kerr

1. Keeping Your Promises to Yourself

It’s that time of the year when we take out gym memberships,

fire up the theme from “Rocky,” and then turn on the T.V.

because there’s a 24-hour Three’s Company marathon playing.

Sadly, most New Year’s resolutions go in one year and out the

other. According to research by British professor Richard

Wiseman (and hey, he’s a wise man, so he most know of what he

speaks), people have been led astray by too many self-help books

that suggest all it takes is will power, dwelling on bad things

that will happen if you don’t achieve your goal, and fantasizing

about success. His studies have found that there is no SECRET

shortcut to success. Those people that successfully achieve their

resolutions do the following: they break the goal into smaller

steps; they reward themselves at each stage; they chart their

progress; they tell friends about what they were trying to

achieve; they remind themselves of the benefits of achieving

their goal. Sounds like a good recipe for workplace motivation

as well. Of course, I would also add the icing to the top of the

recipe: what’s fun, tends to get done!

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2. Mike’s Fun at Work Tip

Creating a team video is a great way to laugh and spark creativity.

So we’re launching a contest for a free Humor at Work workshop and

a Humor at Work office library. All you have to do is get your team

together and create a fun video, no more than one minute long,

showing why your workplace deserves or is in desperate need of a

humor in the workplace or inspiring workplaces workshop by one of Canada’s

most sought after speakers (that would be me). Send us

the link to where we can watch your video, and our esteemed panel

of judges will make the selection. The contest closes February

19th, and the winner will be announced March 1, 2010. For complete

details, follow the link: http://tiny.cc/0Iu6e

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3. Deep Thought of the Week

“My resolution is to stop procrastinating. I’m starting in early

February.” Anonymous

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4. It’s a Wacky, Wacky World

As seen on a sign at a tourist site: BOTTOMLESS PIT. 65 FEET DEEP.

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Copyright Michael Kerr, Humor at Work, 2010 www.humoratwork.com