Are We Getting Too Much Humor in Our Workplaces?

Need some respite from the work day grind? Join the fun on this episode for a light-hearted take on workplace humor. Dan Hill delivers a real tongue-in-cheek take on the corporate lingo and jargon that infiltrates our workplaces. But with every joke he makes, there is a pang of truth: “emojis; the feelings you would be having at work if they were allowed.”

Dan’s new book; “Blah, Blah, Blah: A Snarky Guide to Office Lingo” (https://amzn.to/3nB3hYB) is written in collaboration with over 50 contributors from across the world (including our one and only Tim Houlihan!) who have collectively provided almost 600 definitions of how the workplace really operates.

Our conversation with Dan is not just hilariously funny, he also cracks open the truth on workplace humor being an effective way of tackling serious goals. With this "snarky" book Dan wants to bring the issues of bullying and inequality in the workplace to the forefront of peoples minds. So why use humor to address such momentous issues? In Dan's own words, humor can open your eyes: “A good cartoon, a good joke, I think really captures the essence of a situation, and it does open you up, it's got that aha, twist and turn to a phrase a concept. When we're surprised our eyes go wider, our mouth drops open and means we shut up and we notice the world around us. So I am trying for that element of surprise.”

Welcoming Dan back to Behavioral Grooves in this episode was simply a barrel of laughs for us. But please note, that our discussion contains some language you might not want your kids to hear.

We really do have a lot of fun creating the Behavioral Grooves Podcast, but like Dan said “having fun IS hard work!”. If you’d like to chip in with our work, please consider becoming a monthly contributor at our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/behavioralgrooves. Becoming a special Behavioral Grooves Patreon will open up some exclusive show content just for you!

(4:32) Welcome and speed round questions.

(11:20) Addressing the fact that 20-25% of managers are bullies.

(14:43) Dan reads entries from his snarky book!

(15:47) What is the devil’s dictionary? 

(17:59) Using humor to open people's eyes.

(21:30) How Dan is tackling inequality in the workplace with humor.

(29:11) Grooving with Tim and Kurt on what funny things we learnt from Dan’s interview.

© 2021 Behavioral Grooves

“Blah, Blah, Blah: A Snarky Guide to Office Lingo” by Dan Hill, Howard Moskowitz, James Monroe: https://amzn.to/3nB3hYB 

“Emotionomics: Leveraging Emotions for Business Success” by Dan Hill: https://amzn.to/3FONtbb 

“Famous Faces Decoded: A Guidebook for Reading Others” by Dan Hill: https://amzn.to/3nL5eli 

Dan Hill, Episode 151: On the Facial Coding of Trump, Hendrix, Prince, Gretzky and the Beatles: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/facial-coding-of-trump/

Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dan-hills-eq-spotlight/id1519669707 

John McEnroe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McEnroe 

The Devil's Dictionary : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil%27s_Dictionary

Vanessa Bohns, Episode 253. Why You Don‘t Need to be Powerful to be Influential: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/influence-vanessa-bohns/

Patreon Site for Behavioral Grooves: https://www.patreon.com/behavioralgrooves

Bob Dylan “The Times are A-Changin’”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90WD_ats6eE 

The Beatles “Hard Days Night”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yjyj8qnqkYI