Why I think humor at work always wins
The Reejig Reckons series
Bringing your true self to work encourages others to do the same and feel like they're being treated as respected humans, which is what we all need when we're facing tough situations and unknown conditions.
Let's dive into the topic of bringing humor and authenticity to work.
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Read the transcript:
One of the things that I've probably struggled with a little bit is that I like to use humor a lot at work.
Don't get me wrong, I take things seriously. I'm very focused and I'm very obsessive about what I do. But like to be quite light-hearted and have a laugh, because it's my personality. And in the early stage of my career, I used to avoid that a little bit.
I used to try and be a little bit more robotic and more corporate and it never felt good. I remember one time when I was in the early stages of our Reejig journey, and we were raising funding, I was told that I should be toned down a little bit and be timid.
I went into my first ever pitch being someone who was not at all me — and I screwed the whole thing up because I just didn't do a good job. And I wish I could do that meeting again because that same person wants to invest in us right now.
I think that the thing that I have learned is; when you're open and have a heart-led mindset and bring humor to work, people know that you're real and you're authentic and you're normal. And some of the stuff that we've had to do hasn't been like all sunshine and lollipops, it's been really challenging.
Growing this fast, you have to have tricky conversations with folks, whether they're your current employees, or customers and these are the moments where I've decided that I want to take what I learned in that pandemic moment everyone was just being themselves and not lose that no matter what happens in my career.
No matter what happens in my team, I just want to try and stay 'normal Siobhan', and if 'normal Siobhan' means having a joke and having a laugh whilst also building a great company, why can't we have both?
When you're having a laugh at work or making a joke does that make you look unprofessional? Or is that a good thing? Because I think it's a good thing — and if my past leaders were like that, I probably would have stayed around a lot longer.
