The average person spends the majority of their day either at work or in bed. So making it as fun as possible is the key to success and happiness. But keeping those two factors alive can be very a stressful task. So what can be done to ensure that your day at the office is as stress free as possible? Movehut gathers the answers.
Stress in the office is now one of the main factors for long-term absence at work, overtaking back pain, repetitive strain injury (RSI) and disease. With the threat of redundancy over the majority of everyone’s heads, many people wonder if they will still have a job when they turn up at the office in the morning. So when squeezing the life out of a foam pig is not working anymore, you may need a bit of humour to de-stress the situation.
Humour can be a good stress reliever as it can boost morale, bring people together and reduce work stress. However as with most things, there is a drawback as humour can also create a hostile environment at work if the person on the other end does not see the funny side. So you do have to be careful as an employment tribunal would create extra stress that you do not want or need. So what do people find funny in the office?
A survey conducted by Marshall University found that the majority of people in an office joke about colleagues based of characteristics such as; accents, age, hygiene, gender, sexual orientation, weight and work ethic. However, men and women can differ significantly as to whether they find the humour offensive or funny. Women were more likely to be offended with jokes aimed at physical assets such as cleavage, disfigurements and weight.
Other ways to achieve humour in the office is to win one over on someone you are not a particular fan of. Just by doing something small like offering to fetch them a sandwich from the canteen, knowing he/she is a vegetarian and brining back a chicken and bacon wrap. This should raise a smug smile on your face.
Exercising is also a good stress relief but let’s face it, by the time you get home from work, have fed the kids and settled down for the soaps, the last thing you want to do is to throw on your tracksuit and pound the treadmill. With undertaking exercise outside your home after work, you are more than likely to bump into someone you don’t necessary want to, such as an ex partner or an old boss that will only stress you out even more.
So, how can office workers enjoy the stress-relieving benefits of laughter and humour without causing unnecessary offense? The humour is not the problem; it’s the environment, as some can be so uptight from being stressed in the office, they have forgotten how to take a joke.
Now you have finished reading, just breathe… inhale… hold it, and exhale… everything will be alright.
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