No mas horseplay

Connie Laughlin

Personnel policies needed for goofballs

Work life in the 1960’S was pretty crazy. It was an entirely different era then.  Our joking around was hilarious, albeit very inappropriate. I remember the day things changed.  We had a new executive administrator and she implemented all the new corporate policies. The shop guys lost their sexy girl calendars, we all underwent human resource training, and were given our Employee Handbooks.  On that day appropriate behavior became the norm!  No mas horse play.
There should have been more lawsuits back in the day, because a lot of people got by with some pretty nasty stuff. If you’re still wondering what’s acceptable or what’s not you should play catch-up by visiting www.eeoc.gov. The website contains a lot of information and it’s an eye opener. Due diligence takes time, but it’s oh so necessary. 
There’s nothing more welcome than comic relief to bring smiles and laughter to the otherwise dull and repetitive daily tasks at the office. If you want to allow a playful demeanor at work you must ensure it doesn’t cross the lines where someone could get hurt or it’s not offensive to others (such as; heavy or short people, gay people, women, etc.).  Side note: I find it interesting that heavy people are protected from comments, but smokers aren’t. We’ve all seen someone chastise a person in public that’s smoking, but have you ever seen a do-gooder go up to an obese person and beg them to quit eating?
A couple years back, a successful business owner told me his attorney overheard him call one of his female employees “baby”, and advised him to stop it. He told me he did for awhile, even though he didn’t want to because he couldn’t remember all their names. But things didn’t stay that way; around a week or so later one of the gals came to him crying as she thought he was upset with her since he hadn’t sweet-talked her lately.  So, he quickly went back to calling his gals “sugar” or whatever other baby name came to mind at the time. 
Safety is an area where horseplay or practical jokes could have a negative impact!  Woo-wee, I’m sure glad none of our practical jokes ever landed anyone in the hospital. Back in the day, when quite a few people still smoked we put a “load” (exploding device) in a person’s cigarette so they’d get scared out of their wits next time they reached in the pack and lit one.  You only think mobile devices are a distraction, can you imagine driving your car and lighting this small bomb? Or, how about when we strategically duct-taped a pager under the dash in our bosses Suburban and then continuously called the pager number when he went to lunch. And, on and on it went… one shenanigan after another.
As a business owner it’s your responsibility to ensure employees work in a safe environment that’s free from illegal harassment and safety hazards.
If you are an employee and really tired of your job, here are a couple of ideas to put an end to your everyday doldrums and your job, as well.
Be sneaky; change the language on a co-workers computer to a foreign language. And, do it every day.
Here’s a good one - take the photo frame from your bosses’ desk, scan the picture, and replace the image of his wife with a gorilla in a dress – show him how creative his employees are with photo-shop.
I’ve also heard you can “load” a stapler with loads made for cap guns. 
Hit on everyone at the office whether they like you or not.  Stick with it too, as you never know unless you try.
Seriously, what is being done about inappropriate worksite behavior and horse play? They’re not looked at as keenly, because most employers aren’t effectively trained HR experts and may not have the best skills to handle these issues appropriately and legally. 
Connie Laughlin is a Business Consultant for UniqueHR.  For more information, you may contact Connie at (361) 852-6392 or conniel@uniquehr.com.