Dear Colleagues,

For sometime now I’ve been seriously connecting with people trying to establish relationships.

Whenever I try to connect with fellow HR professionals of the other organizations, I’m sorry to say, but am being given an impression that they are too busy to entertain a call. In most places I find there is intense scrutiny and screening done by the receptionist on the phone and can hardly reach our fellow professionals.

I am not surprised, but am wondering as to how poor this strategy can be because you might just miss hiring a “Sachin” or a “Tiger Woods,” or “Mike Jordan.”

May be I am imagining, may be I might hurt the sentiments or some fellow professionals, but let me be explicit, imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not, and a sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is.

Tara Ploughman, quotes, "The less confident you are in your motivation and the object of your devotion, the more serious you have to act."

A sense of relationship and co-partnership with people involves intelligent tolerance, open-mindedness, good-natured optimism, and an ability to laugh at oneself in the face of hardship.

Life really is not a bed of roses, in fact, its a tough battle between fittest and the fast, between just the hardworking and the hardworking plus smart, between fear and faith, between hope and hopelessness, between pessimism and optimism.

In between all this one must have a sense of humor to be a faithful, hopeful optimist in competitive times like the one’s we see each day.

All of us will need a sense of humor if we need to a live a life of harmony be it at work or back from work, with colleagues, friends, and relatives - with all of them.

Good humor must be genuine, not simulated. It should let your smiles come from the heart and they will become contagious. It should seep through your voices.

You may not see people whose laugh is with nothing in it but teeth. People without humor tend to forget their source, lose sight of their goal, and with no lubrication in their mental crankshafts, they must drop out of the race. Lincoln said, 'Good humor is the oxygen of the soul.' And someone paraphrased, 'The surly bird catches the germ.'

Working does not have to be dull and morbid as most make it to be. We are all funny creatures in so many ways, and when we rise above the daily bread and butter battle to look into our lives from above, it becomes apparent. We are all laughably insane, and
what a long, strange, wonderful trip it is.

I end this brief essay with a quote from none other than Mahatma Gandhi, who said, "If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide."

I'm waiting to hear from the others as well on this aspect.

Warm Regards,

Smita

The saying 'the surly bird catches the germ' indeed is very true... i am a clinical psychologist and like me all my professional collegues would also know that a person who is sad or depressed or serious most of the time tends to fall ill or be unwell more than a person who remains happy... this has to do with the fact that our immune system tends to become weaker when we are always in a serious mood...

I agree that if there was no sense of humor in our lives there would be nothing much to live for... it is the laughter and the smiles that help us to live through the tough time...

All you folks can try this simple trick out... when you are feeling a bit sad or out of sorts... just force yourself to smile... initially the smile would be artificial... but then over a period of some time it will help you brighten up your day... this trick really helps me and has also been useful to my friends and family... just give it a try...

Regards
Tracy

Business people often perform the daily routine of doing business and making profits for their enterprise as their primary duty, not realizing that in fact the primary duty is to create a workplace environment that is conducive to the healthy growth of vital human resources in their business organizations.

Precisely, the most successful people in business do not just go out to work -- they go out to enjoy themselves in their world of business and making money is a dividend to them. This kind of philosophy is contrary to that of many managers employed in Organisations. These managers become particularly over stressed, always thinking that they are employed in a serious world of business which has no place for Humour. Humour is viewed as an unhealthy and unprofitable activity that thrives in the entertainment industry. The results of neglecting .

Humour helps us to l ower our tension, anger, pain and the stress of modern day living and working, resulting in better mental health and helps in solving problems that demand creative solutions. It also brings a bit of personality to the office when employees can express themselves through their dressing, styling, and things tacked onto their office walls, etc. In this way, the workplace can be humanized. it lifts spirits and inspires motivation and productivity with less absenteeism.and makes working in a team enriching with a constant free exchange of fun.

Declare a fun day at least once a month.

Amarjeet

I still fail to reason (rather dimensionally understand) your perception on HR Folks being so Serious. Your concepts are pretty well alinged and in place with lot of Companies & MNC's (who had adopted fun@workplace) years back.

Cheers

Meera

Hello friends,

I am in agreement with you entirely. Laughing is best and cost-free therapy ( we HR guys not excluded ). It is a great teambuilding tool. I am posting some thoughts which may be found relevant and useful by all members.

Finding the happiness you want

Take time to think,it is the source of power.

Take time to play,it is the source of perpetual youth.

Take time to read, it is the fountain of wisdom.

Take time to pray, it is the greatest power on earth.

Take time to be friendly, it is the road to happiness.

Take time to work, it is the price of success.

Take time to laugh, it is the music of the soul.

Take time to give, it is too short a day to be selfish.

- Anonymous

Regards

Prof Tandon

I do not feel that HR guys are serious, In fact they are the most friendly guys in any organisation but the fact is that except for Call Centres/ IT companies and may be afew MNC's the concept of fun and humour at workplace is not taken seriously as it should be taken as any other perks offered. Please correct me if I am wrong.

More say ??

Jigar

Dear friends,

I am quite an align to this concept of declaring days. I don't agree with declaring one day as fun day or any other such "      " day and making efforts to have fun or  "     " on that day. One must have fun or be funny when he / she feels like. It is all about being what you want to be when you want to be and that is the best you can be.

Regards

Aarti

The corporate culture and the work environment plays a significant role in typecasting the HR professionals under a specific role play - be it a social one or a serious one. There's simply no apprehensions to imply that the HR folks are serious guys when they are actually backed up by the management functioning of the organization.

Yeah, when we refer to people on higher managerial positions on the HR seat, they are already moulded to act a serious and a toughened guy if he were to manage a huge team of HR professionals.

Just to cite an instance (with regards to experiences) ;

When we join a new organisation, we speak less initially since we are under the observance mode wherein we are always curios enough to know more about the colleagues, the work culture etcetra. We open up only once we understand thoroughly the management behavior and the organizational behavior at large. So what are we doing here, we are evaluating several demographic issues before coming to a conclusion and finalising on our role play. And hence, we can't really have this statement implied that 'HR folks are serious' ; rather the next time you come across such a person, try studying the culture and the surrounding behavior, it shall open the box to the core.

So HR people to say, are professional actors having rehearsed their roles in each organizations which enable them to switch roles of social and a serious professional as per the situation demanding..

Over to the other professionals !!

CHRM