Working here is hilarious. Not a day goes by when I don’t look around and find something to laugh at. Seriously, have you seen some of them?!
Yes, children can be cruel (I admit that I’m a child, but in my defence, laughing at my colleagues does help pass the time), but in all seriousness I think a dash of humour in the workplace is of huge importance. I’m not talking David Brent style comedy (although my aforementioned colleagues will claim we have similarities I’m sure), but the importance of a bit of traditional office banter and a reason to crack a smile here and there shouldn’t be underestimated. For me it goes back to the day when I realised that I’ll spend more time with my colleagues than nearly anyone else. If you can’t laugh with them, I thought, what else are you going to do from 9 to 5?
Anyway, I digress. The purpose of this post is to share a thought on our latest training initiative. But come on, if I’d started this post with that line you wouldn’t have made it this far, would you?
Presenting is something we have to do in PR with some regularity, and as we like to involve the entire account team in something like a formal pitch situation, you can be at any level and still be expected to say at least something during one of these sessions. When there’s a big budget at stake, or when you’ve not done much presenting before, the pressure can really start to mount.
So we got trained, not on ‘how to present without making a tit out of yourself’, more the opposite; ‘how to present with a touch of humour’. A sense of humour is emotive, and in my view being funny isn’t something that can be taught. However, learning how to speak in a way that’s engaging, exiting and just a little bit funny is a powerful way of building confidence. And to top it all, we were all pretty damn funny! Seriously, we were.
Our trainer told us that a joke is a diametrically opposed statement. Good job too, because it proves we’re doing something right in this office. We work hard and we take things seriously. But, at the end of the day? Well it’s PR, not ER…
