Unit 4  50 shades of humour

Introduction

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A group of three individuals seated in a modern office setting, engaged in an informal discussion and laughing and smiling.

Welcome to Unit 4, ‘50 Shades of humour’. This unit explores the various functions and impacts of humour in online meetings.

After our welcome audio, you will learn about how humour is used and experienced in online interactions and how this relates to gender and other hierarchies in the workplace. The unit includes some activities, including videos where humour is used in different ways, followed by a reflection on your own experiences and use of humour. The unit will end, as usual, with a short quiz to check your learning.

  Learning outcomes

 

By the end of this unit, you should be able to:

 

  • Understand how humour can be used in different ways in online meetings to promote effective and equitable online meetings.
  • Understand that humour can be experienced in different ways.
  • Develop the skills to identify how humour is being used to facilitate or hinder equitable interactions.
  • Reflect on potential responses when humour is being used in positive and negative ways.

 

Welcome from the Unit 4 authors

Listen to one of the unit authors, Katrín Ólafsdóttir, introducing herself and sharing what she enjoyed most about the GEiO research project.

Note: In the audio below the author speaks in her first language. The transcript has been translated into English.

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Transcript

KATRÍN ÓLAFSDÓTTIR
Welcome to Unit 4, which we call ‘50 shades of humour’. My name is Katrín Ólafsdóttir, and I am the author of this module together with Flora Tietgen.
Did you know that research shows that the lower a person’s position is in the workplace hierarchy, the more likely they are to laugh at jokes made by someone in a higher position? And did you know that people in lower positions are more likely than those in higher positions to make jokes about themselves? In this module, you will gain a deeper understanding of the social dimensions of humour and how it is used in online meetings. You will also learn practical strategies for using humour constructively, as well as how to recognise and respond when humour is misused.
The module begins with an overview of research on humour in the workplace. You will learn how humour can be used in different ways, how it relates to gender and other social factors, and how it can help foster a positive and friendly communication culture at work.
In this module, you will see three videos demonstrating different ways of using humour in online meetings and analyse its various effects in each context. You will then have the chance to reflect on your own experiences and connect them to what you have learned. The module concludes with a presentation of practical tools and techniques for working with humour in the workplace, along with guidelines for being mindful of humour in relation to workplace culture and online meetings.
Let's start by looking at what current research tells us about humour at work.
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