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Comment by bzb3 | Hacker News Reader

Someone who can't take a joke like the one that's mentioned in the article is liable to be problematic in some other capacity anyway.

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“Cant’t take a joke” is a terrible excuse for making people uncomfortable.

People are sensitive, impostor syndrome is extremely common. The people who work for you are always going to be worried about their job at some level. Don’t take advantage of your power to make a joke that is, at best, not funny and at worst incredibly anxiety-inducing.

Don't generalize, not all people are mentally weak and get uncomfortable or offended that easily even when that's the trend in the 21st century.

A manager, like everyone else, should know who to make a joke to, and he will get closer to those employees.

That's exactly what I said. Sensitive people or people with impostor syndrome are problematic. I think those people are the problem, and not jokey managers. But we can disagree, that's okay. :)

Or people with autism spectrum disorders, or other issues (just being tired, say), who might find the nuance of your joke impossible to gauge?

Your job as a manager, with "sensitive" reportees is not to be a dick and make things uncomfortable for them, it's to help them do the work they're employed for.

Perhaps managers who can't see they're on shaky ground making such a joke are liable to be problematic in some other capacity.

Yes, they may take other jokes wrong, but this probably isn't the metric you need to optimize as a manager. And it probably isn't a very good proxy for whatever that metric might be. This is to say nothing of worsening that metric by stressing out your employees.

"Advice to New Police Officers: Don't Joke About Shooting People"

People in positions of power should not take lightly their ability to ruin peoples' lives with strangers. Or anyone, really, but especially strangers.

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