4.1  Best practice – navigating workplace humour through an intersectional lens

Now that you have reflected on your own use and reception of humour, this section will provide you with an overview of best practices for creating an inclusive environment. These recommendations consider how people’s social identities and their roles within the workplace shape their experience of humour at work. They are based on what you have learned so far in the course and the most recent research in this area. The goal is to foster an inclusive environment where everyone can contribute effectively.

While you can develop your own skills in navigating workplace humour, your employer also has a role and should provide clear meeting guidelines and safe reporting processes. If your workplace does not provide any of this, consider discussing it with your manager. Below are three practical steps you can use as tools to foster a more intersectional awareness and develop your own responses and uses of workplace humour. Choose strategies that best suit your situation, capacity, safety considerations, and the specific context as you help create positive change.

Step 1: Building awareness on a daily basis

It is important for you to regularly consider your own social identities and position in the company and reflect on it in connection with the people you work with. Your position in relation to others changes rapidly depending on who you collaborate with and who you are meeting, etc. You can also encourage your colleagues to reflect on their social identities and roles within the workplace.

Discussing these topics during lunch breaks can be engaging. This can support the promotion of positive humour and help prevent negative humour that could be perceived as aggressive. You can use the assessment below to regularly reflect on your own use of humour in online meetings.

Mindful humour assessment

  • What is my position in the company's hierarchy?
  • What are my social identities?
  • The last time I used humour in an online meeting, why did I make this joke?
    • How did people react? Did they really laugh or just laugh along?
    • Considering the Social Identity Wheel and company hierarchies, how do I relate to the person I directed this joke towards?
  • Thinking about the last time someone made a joke during an online meeting at someone else, how did I react?
    • Considering the Social Identity Wheel and company hierarchies, who was the recipient of this joke?
  • Thinking about the last time I was the recipient of humour, who made the joke? How did it make me feel?

Step 2: Applying awareness in online meetings

The reflections on your social identities and position in the company are useful when entering online meetings, as they help you navigate your use and reception of humour. In this step, you shift from focusing on yourself to understanding the dynamics of the online meeting. Keep in mind that online meetings can mask or highlight certain aspects in comparison to in-person meetings, such as different cultural communication styles, visible and invisible aspects of identity, reading facial expressions and body language and technical accessibility issues. Try to understand others’ social identities and company roles, and how your position relates to them, as this influences the meeting dynamics and how humour is used and perceived.

Mindful online meeting assessment

  • How do I relate to others in this meeting, considering the Social Identity Wheel and company hierarchies?
  • Who is the chair of the meeting, and what is their role in the company’s hierarchy?
  • Who is welcome to speak? Who is comfortable speaking? Who does not speak?
  • Considering the Social Identity Wheel and company hierarchies, how do the different positions of the participants influence their ability to actively participate in the meeting?

Step 3: Practical skills to change meeting cultures in the workplace

By fostering intersectional awareness on a daily basis in both online and in-person meetings, you can positively impact meeting culture. Steps 1 and 2 should help you explore how intersectionality enables you to examine meeting spaces and create more inclusive environments in videoconferencing. Step 3 provides you with practical tools to navigate aggressive and negative humour. You can consider these response strategies based on your situational assessment.

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This interactive follows a branching tree structure. Each option leads to another slide of information about fostering intersectional awareness, both in-person and in online meetings. You can explore any path and return to the start at any time.

Slide 1.0: Incident of negative/aggressive humour

  • Nonparticipation strategies
  • Direct pushback assessment
  • Ally mobilisation
  • Escalation protocols

Slide 1.1: Nonparticipation strategies

  • Avoid complicit laughter
  • Emphasise the inappropriateness rather than filling it with nervous laughter
  • Allow uncomfortable silence
  • Subtly redirect attention to the matter at hand

Slide 1.2: Direct pushback assessment

  • Evaluate your position

Slide 1.2.1: Evaluate your position

  • Am I senior, at the same level or junior to the person who used aggressive humour?
  • Do I have credibility and respect within this group to challenge the person who used aggressive humour?
  • What are the possible consequences, such as retaliation, isolation or career impact?
  • Who else is present in the meeting, and what are their social identities and company positions?
  • Are there any witnesses or allies?

Slide 1.3: Ally mobilisation

  • Pre-meeting strategies
  • During the meeting
  • After the meeting

Slide 1.3.1: Pre-meeting strategies

  • Have a protocol in place for addressing incidents.
  • Engage in conversations about inclusive workplace culture during neutral moments.

Slide 1.3.2: During the meeting

  • Try inclusive questioning, e.g. asking, ‘What does everyone else think about this?’ to invite broader perspectives or to disrupt the meeting atmosphere.
  • Try a tag-team approach to disrupt the meeting atmosphere, e.g. one person questions, another supports: ‘I agree with X, that seems problematic’.

Slide 1.3.3: After the meeting

  • Assess the incident with a group if possible or appropriate.
  • Approach the individual who instigated the humour, if possible or appropriate.

Slide 1.4: Escalation protocols

  • Does it have a pattern?
  • Is there any documentation?
  • Reporting protocols
  • Self-care during escalation

Slide 1.4.1: Does it have a pattern?

  • Does the humour target the same individuals and groups?
  • Does the humour target race, gender, religion, disability or sexual orientation?
  • Is someone abusing power to humiliate or marginalise others?
  • Does the humour create fear or anxiety?

Slide 1.4.2: Is there any documentation?

  • Are there any records such as emails, recordings, screenshots?
  • Are there any witnesses?
  • Take notes of date, time, exact words/actions and observed impact.

Slide 1.4.3: Reporting protocols

  • What are the protocols?
  • Who can you approach first (e.g. supervisor).
  • Is there a formal complaint process?
  • Could you contact a union representative?

Slide 1.4.4: Self-care during escalation

  • Engage support networks e.g. trusted colleagues, counsellors.
  • Consider professional guidance if necessary.
  • Put in boundaries: recognise when to remove yourself for safety or wellbeing.
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4  Time for reflection

Unit 4 conclusion