In a world repeatedly catastrophising that “you can’t make a joke anymore without offending someone”, I’m here to disagree and help guide the way!
Most companies we work with place high importance on a culture that falls into the category of “professional but fun and friendly”. That means jokes are going to get made, with humour being a great way for employees to build relationships, increase morale and reduce stress. And yes, there are plenty of jokes that are entirely workplace appropriate and possible…
Having said that, humour brings with it the potential for misjudgement and misinterpretation. As previously reported, over the last few years employees have been consistently bringing claims in the employment tribunal of ‘harassment’ or ‘discrimination’ in respect of so-called workplace ‘banter’ or ‘jokes’. Harassment in this context means where one person:
- engages in unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic,
- which has the purpose or effect of violating another person’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for another person.
Good policies and training providing practical guidance for employees navigating a modern workplace can help to reduce claims. However, they also provide a defence for an employer that it has taken “all reasonable” steps to prevent harassment.
Although people are always going to have different perspectives on what they think is offensive or not, there are some common-sense rules that can be applied by everyone when having a laugh at work, and which would go a long way in reducing legal claims.
So, here are some (non-exhaustive) top tips that employers can pass onto their employees on how to have great banter at work without harassing anyone:
- Steer well clear of jokes relating to protected characteristics. These are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. This is because, in addition to potentially being quite personal and emotive topics, these characteristics are those which are specifically protected by discrimination and harassment laws. The words “related to” are broadly interpreted.
- Be aware of the following points:
- People might well be (and are entitled to be) offended by certain jokes, even if they themselves aren’t the subject of the joke or don’t have the characteristics being joked about themselves.
- A one-off joke can constitute harassment.
- It doesn’t matter if you didn’t mean a joke to be offensive: it comes down to whether another person reasonably found it offensive. - Read the room and other’s responses: is everyone is joining in, having fun and also making similar jokes? Or can you see someone withdrawing, staying very quiet, or looking shocked and upset? Respond appropriately – whether you are the one making the joke or just a party to it. Everyone has the opportunity to call out others when they sense that their jokes are going too far.
- Think about the context: are you joking with another colleague of a similar seniority level? Do you already have a good relationship with that person? Do they normally joke with you? Are you joking one-on-one with someone or is it in front of a group of people? All these things (and others) can feed into whether a joke is received well or not.
- Generally: think about how the joke would sound being repeated back to you if a complaint was made and whether you’d feel uncomfortable trying to justify it if questioned about it.
- Be careful about written communications. More practical than the above points, be conscious that for jokes made in writing (such as on email or Slack/Microsoft Teams), tone is lost and can be easily misinterpreted. Also bear in mind that such jokes are very easily evidenced if things do escalate. Things always sound less funny when read out in court! Always take a step back before hitting send.
- Don’t use winking faces at work (honestly, they always look inappropriate in a legal case).
By providing employees with some boundaries, jokes and banter at work are not only likely to be legally safer but will help to foster a culture of fun and inclusion within a workplace. We already know that happy employees are productive employees, but additional benefits for employers might include reduced issues of stress and mental health in their workplace and increased retention.
So don’t believe those who tell you that fun at work is over: it is entirely possible to laugh and joke at work without harassing one-another and is something we can (and should) all strive for.