More Levity at Work
Comfort Plus—Humor for Customers & Employees
As readers of my posts know, I enjoy finding ways to inject humor at my workplace, when I teach, even on the dance floor. (I like swing and Latin dance). As a way to practice more of what I encourage in my book The Humor Hack, I have been not only paying more attention for opportunities for more humor, but also remembering them as well. One of my main problems is that often when I find a way to add fun into my workday, but I later don’t remember what I said or did. It makes it hard to have standing examples at the ready. Well that all ends today friends. Here are two examples of humor related to work from recent trip I took in western North Carolina.
Our first example comes from a little river tube rental business on Deep Creek near Bryson, North Carolina just outside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The company that we chose to offered two kinds of tubes to rent. The first was your standard tube, thick vinyl in the classic donut shape. The second version, pictured below, is a fancy-schmancy version with a headrest and no hole: truly the pinnacle of tubing luxury. As the rest of the family and my friend Gabe were coming up I asked them what sort of tube they’d like. They were understandably confused. So, I said, “They have two types, standard and comfort plus.” This didn’t help, but then again, I wasn’t trying to helpful, I was messing with them. I thought it was funny, and my family and friend tolerated my dalliance. Of course, once they saw the tubes they got the joke. The person handling the reservations even smiled at my humor.
But after a moment, I thought of how using that phrase might be great way to talk to a customer about the tubes. I mean they would obviously see the difference but if the person running the rental stand used it as part of a schtick when talking about the tubes, I am sure it would garner some smiles. People are there for some fun and recreation, why not start the tubing off with exactly that a little lighthearted banter as they plop down a few bucks for their tube. They might get the reference implicit in the joke to upgraded flight seating, they might not. It doesn’t much matter. If they do, it only makes the joke that more engaging. If they don’t the joke still works. Those are the best kind I would say. Either way, they’ll get that you’ve said something humorous and likely be pleased.
The next example of humor in the workplace comes from the blacksmith’s shop/forge at the John C Campbell Folkschool. What you see in the picture below is a power hammer, which is a tool for forming and shaping metal. It hits pretty hard so keep your hands away from the hammer when it’s in use. Imagine those eyes googling and bouncing as the hammer strikes an insanely hot piece of steel. I wish I had a video of it in action, but all I could get was this pic.
This little bit of humor is great for places like a blacksmith’s shop. Forges and smithies can be hot and uncomfortable, so any chance you can get to inject a little lightheartedness is appreciates. This also happens to be a school, so mistakes happen. To have that little bit of levity greet you every morning surely makes the day better—not to mention the hilarity of the eyes bouncing when in use. Simple, effective, and completely appropriate for most any workspace. Go ahead and see what you can do.