My initial thought was that I didn't like that prescription. But I'd like to know _why_ the author thinks "joke less, laugh less" would help with divisiveness.
I guess the point is, it's not always clear what is a joke (or by extension, what, or who, is being laughed at).
Had a coworker who would routinely make jokes assuming alignment with his own extremist political preferences and it was uncomfortable like whoa.
It gets worse when half the team is laughing, and the other half are praying for you to be struck dumb already.
Giving up on laughter seems a "baby with the bathwater" approach to inclusiveness. I suppose being miserable is rather inclusive though :/
That said, there are certainly people that can only perform humor as a zero-sum game. But in my experience they are also generally the kind of people that subject their coworkers to uncomfortable conversations in a myriad of other ways.
If you come into a tight culture of people who will riff all day on harmless puns, or crack references to old Jersey Shore dramas, or whatever, it can be acutely alienating.
I wouldn’t personally want to work in a place so sterile, but I also feel confident in my ability to float around and either find a lively culture that suits me or work my way into a culture that once felt alienating.
But not everybody feels so confident in that, and sterile results-focused work communities get the opportunity to have these people thrive.
That sounds good for those people and for those organizations.
As long as the whole job market isn’t made to look that way, I’m not sure there’s a big critique to make.
Exactly. And people are saying "don't rob us of our culture." That ain't woke.
[Tells joke about Bob] [No laughter] [Bob is on the conference call]
[Tells political joke] [Others think you're stupid but don't say anything]
There's a line to be walked but it's not hard, it just takes practice.
If avoiding "divisiveness" needs killing jokes and laugh, welcome divisiveness, whatever it is.
In my mind, I translate "divisive" as "doesn't think like I do" so it makes total sense to like it.
This particular manipulation of language consists in the confusion of cause and effect.
Diversity of opinions exists. It's good and it's accepted to be good, even if it makes feel some people bad sometimes. Freedom of speech requires effort to accept we're different. To make it sound bad, you need to create a frame where everybody agrees on everything until some evil "divisive" person creates division.
That's false.
Ironically I think the author has included an incredibly divisive opinion in a post about being less divisive, and has therefore dissolved any authority on the matter.
Humor that doesn't offend can be hard to pull off. If you crack jokes regularly, odds are high some of them will be offensive.
Most people are quick to assume you are laughing at them, not with them. So if you are laughing a lot at work, odds are good someone will take that as mocking, as disrespect, as you not being adequately serious about the job.
If you are careful with humor, you can do good things with it. People who joke habitually are probably not being careful with it.