Have you ever thought about what makes you laugh? Paul McGhee has—a lot. In fact, he spent 20 years thinking about it in academia as a researcher and university psychology instructor. And now he owns The Laughter Remedy, a company that offers keynotes and seminars on humor in the workplace and humor as it relates to health.
"The problem is that a lot of people see humor and fun as totally inappropriate in the workplace," McGhee says. "The assumption is that if you're laughing, you're goofing off or not taking your work seriously. But humor really boosts performance and the bottom line." McGhee argues that over the past 15 years, job stress has continually increased as fewer people are expected to produce more. "For a while, as the stress level goes up, you'll work more effectively. But as it gets too high, it'll interfere with productivity," says McGhee. "Humor is one of the most powerful tools for coping with stress. My point is that humor is a skill that you need to be effective in a demanding job."
And it's good for you, too. McGhee cites research that shows that humor and laughter enhance the body's immune system, relax muscles, and reduce stress hormones. But he is talking about laughter, after all, so McGhee keeps the dry academics to a minimum.
"I demonstrate how humor helps to let go of the upset of the moment," McGhee says of his keynotes. "It's hard to hang on to anger, upset, and frustration when you're laughing." To illustrate this point, McGhee piles several chairs in his arms and on his head, and then struggles to move around the stage. "The chairs represent all this emotional stuff we build up—tensions, anxiety, depression," he says. "I physically carry these chairs around on my head to represent the emotional turmoil of a demanding, high-stress job. I ask the audience, 'When is this going to end? How can I possibly get everything done?' " McGhee says it's a routine that has people remembering his speeches years later.
Like other skills, humor can be learned. "Humor helps people find unexpected, surprising meaning in things," he says. "So in an environment where there's a high premium on innovative solutions for companies, on finding new ways of doing business, it's not surprising that humor plays an important role."