Laughter should be used at work

I am writing a research paper that talks about the effects laughter and our mental health has in the workplace. What I found is that all types of laughter bring positive reinforcement, regardless if we are at work or not. Laughter and humor are common models of language we use, but they also serve as a tool which can improve working conditions.

Unfortunately, most people in the U.S. have a form of work-related depression (one in five adults). This should come as no surprise considering many people work at jobs they have no passion for. The forms of communication people primarily use in the workplace are responses to commands from management. 

Many people probably work with others they share no connections with, so it makes sense why workplace depression is abundant.

The typical American worker schedule is 40 hours per week, meaning we spend roughly 24 percent of our adult lives around our co-workers. This can be good or bad, depending on the compatibility we have with our co-workers.

The problem is that, with these mental health issues, workplaces are faced with paying loads of money to treat employee mental health disorders. However, we aren’t treating this problem proactively. 

It feels like workplaces ask us to trade our personalities for a work ethic that benefits the organization and not the individual. Maybe it’s this personality drop-off that causes workplace depression. Instead, workplaces should inhabit laughter as a mental health management tool. Laughter is free and anyone can apply it, so long as their sense of humor is effective.

To understand laughter’s effect on mental health, just think about the last time you laughed so hard you fell out of your chair. I’m willing to bet you felt relieved of any worries or anxieties for that moment. 

If you feel that is a bad example, then look at how babies laugh at things they love and cry at the things they hate. This goes to show that laughter is a primal reaction we use to express love and crying as an expression of distress.

Laughter is one of the rare emotions that we use to acknowledge a moment we enjoy. Meanwhile, other emotions stress, anxiety and depression cause us to grieve about something for long periods of time.

Looking at “The Office”, Jim Halpert clearly hates his job, but is loved in the workplace because of the goofy pranks he pulls on everyone in diplomatic fashion. Even though he doesn’t help the workplace with production, he makes those around him laugh. Meanwhile, Dwight Schrute does the opposite of Jim, but most people favor Jim’s goofiness to Dwight’s hard work.

While “The Office” is fictional and provides little to no assessment of the actual workplace, the audience is also drawn towards characters like Jim over those like Dwight. My assumption is that people who are surrounded by co-workers all week would rather laugh at what they do instead of being impressed.

This shouldn’t be an encouragement to not work hard, but rather a recognition that laughter draws in more interest inside a workplace and those around us than simply accomplishing tasks diligently. After all, Dwight’s busy antics on the show cause a heart attack while Jim’s antics land him in a relationship with his soulmate.

Focusing on bringing more laughter to the workplace could enhance the quality of our mental health, but it also encourages us to be better company around those we spend a good portion of our lives with.