Was that really funny?: the politics of humor.

Everybody loves a comic - or do they? A Human Resources Department picked up a pattern when several departing employees. all excellent performers, said they liked jobs but felt "excluded" from the camaraderie. One said he'd found the humor "bared." Another said she's never seen anything funny in jokes that seemed to convulse everyone else.

The past five years have been so gloomy, economically speaking, that, in many hospitals and health care organizations, laughter is a mega-event. But lately I've been listening to what employees joke about and watching how their humor affects others. Physician executives need to be alert to some kinds of humor that are weapons used by employees against others employees, their managers, and the company generally.

Humor is individual and revealing. Remember Gary Larsen of "The Far Side?" You either thought his cartoons were hilarious or grizzly. There was no middle ground. Ditto "Dilbert." The latter offends as many people as it amuses. Busters and boomers don't laugh at the same things. Humor separates these groups as much as age and life-style do. Generation X finds amusement in self-deprecation and poverty. Boomers still think jokes about sex, gays, gender differences. and minorities are funny, although the most offensive are told selectively to the politically incorrect. Busters also tell high-tech jokes that leave older co-workers clueless as to what's funny.

There is also a politics of humor, and it's not the same as it was in the '80s. Lately, a number of physicians have mentioned that humor in the workplace has taken on overtones they'd like to discourage, even when the content is politically correct. Humor has become a subtle weapon in the competition among people whose careers seem as flat as the organizations they work for.

Here are some of the ways humor is used that I think managers should be concerned about.

Humor or sarcasm used as a power play. Offensive jokes are most often told by senior managers with the power to compel people to laugh. It's an irresistible test of how powerful they are. Why doesn't someone confront? Because no one is sure if anyone else was offended. If people laugh - and subordinates often feel compelled to do so - how can they later say they were offended? Someone should speak to these dinosaurs before they hurt themselves and the organization. This is aggression in its purest form.

Doesn't anyone realize that sarcasm is also a power play? That people with cutting tongues use them to increase personal power while attempting to be thought witty rather than cutting. If the victim of the sarcasm doesn't see the humor, it's his or her fault, never the perpetrator's.

Humor used to exclude. Before the emphasis on team play, looking at who laughed at what was interesting, but not necessarily important. However, sometimes humor within teams, instead of creating a bond, is used as an exclusionary tactic. Senior managers watch team members interacting and listen for content, not form. They don't understand that humor defines who is truly on the team and who is not. In a team of six, three people who share the same sense of what's funny bond. The other three team members know they don't get it and they feel excluded. There is a power in being part of the "in" group and knowing you can signal your opinions through the shorthand of humor.

Humor used to challenge authority. Consider the plight of the computer-phobic boss who manages technical wizards. Their jokes undermine the boss's authority because they point up that he or she doesn't understand why the jokes are funny. It's a deliberate challenge because all the jokes portray the boss as a boob. It took the CFO of a mega medical group company weeks to figure out that his direct reports found it hilarious to watch his discomfort in meetings when they talked in bits and bytes.

Humor used to undermine. "Weren't you surprised when Joan got it right at the presentation? Remember her last attempt? I almost died when she spilled the pitcher of water." Laughter all around. Joan's competence is being challenged, but if she hears and doesn't laugh, she's a "poor sport" or "too sensitive." Women and racial and ethnic minorities are pegged the same way when they fail to find jokes about "equal opportunity hires" funny.

What's an already overburdened medical director to do? Criticizing someone's sense of humor isn't easy, especially when laughter seems to reduce stress. Sure, we can't have thought police in the workplace. However, we can attack the problem from one very strong position: appropriateness. Humor that wounds and undermines, whether with jokes or sarcasm, can be curbed if management is willing to take a stand on the results rather than the process.

If you want to silence the source of vulgar jokes or mean-spirited remarks without confrontation, one technique never fails. Don't laugh at the punch line; ask the joker to explain to you what's funny. Humor can't be explained. You either get it or you don't.

I saw a physician do this with a subordinate who loved to poke fun at other people's technical incompetence. "You mean you don't know how to do that?" he'd guffaw. His co-workers knew it was self-aggrandizement. The guy wasn't just state-of-the-art technically; he was pushing the edge of the envelope. His boss got tired of the barbs and started saying, "I don't know how to do that either. Show me, and tell me why your remark is funny." The techie got the point.

For the past few years, I've been a big advocate of asking every employee in every appraisal an additional question not on the appraisal form. "How have you enhanced the productivity, effectiveness, and job satisfaction of your co-workers in the past year. Give me some examples." The question is a great opportunity to drive home the fact that every employee is responsible for behaving appropriately, which means, at minimum, not interfering with other people's productivity and job satisfaction and, at best, enhancing both.

I doubt that these discussions are popular with the minority of employees who live for the opportunity to deliver cutting remarks and withering comments. Physicians often believe these remarks and comments are harmless, because they don't see them as a challenge. On the other hand, what manager can ignore one worker openly sabotaging another?

You'll never eliminate all inappropriate humor from the workplace, nor should you try. Focus on the people using humor as a weapon and watch the environment brighten.

Marilyn Moats Kennedy is Managing Partner, Career Strategies, Inc., Wilmette, Ill., and a member of the College's faculty.