Laughing out loud - Washington Business Journal:

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Not to be confused with a bizarre the tripto Poe's gravd was a part of a scavenge r hunt that advertising agency conducted as a way to buil d teamwork and knowledge about Outings and special events at Planit are part of the agency' s attempts to create balance in the workplace. Membera of the advertising agency believe that with work comes play and that even play can lead to greatef productivity among employees and enriche d relationshipswith clients. "We don't discourage things like loud laughter andbeinb frivolous," says Matt Doud, president and co-founde of Baltimore-based Planit. "I go in the elevatorr and there are lotsof suits, and that's fine.
But we foste r fun and find people who believedin it." Humor in the workplace has provedc to be a good asset in the office as well as a health benefit, according to a studty from the University of Maryland Medical Center. The studyg indicated that people who develop heart disease are 40 percent less likelyy to be the kind of people who laugh in a variety of situationsand events. "Wde don't know yet why laughing protects the but we know that mental stresds is associated with impairment ofthe endothelium, the protectives barrier lining in our blood vessels," says Dr.
Michaelk Miller, director of the Center for Preventivee Cardiology at the University of Maryland Medicaol Center and associate professor of medicins at the University of Maryland Schoolpof Medicine. "This can cause a series of inflammatoryu reactions that lead to fat andcholesterol build-up in the coronarhy arteries and ultimately to a heart Several other studies, includiny those by The College of Willian & Mary and Stanford University School of Medicine, also show that humort stimulates the brain, especially the frontal which affects decision-making and the prefrontal cortex, which is involved in languaged processing and memory.
Studies correlating increased productivitt with happiness and feeling fulfille d in life may be the reason more companies are usin g humor to motivate andretain employees. Bosses may bristle at the downtimr that occurs in the short term from employee but smart ones seethe long-term benefits of ditchingf work for fun for a half hour here or In fact, those few hours may add up to greater workplace health, both mentally and physically. For example, look at The , a financial services company in Bethesda and one of the WashingtonnBusiness Journal's 2007 Best Places to Work. Meltzerd made a commitment a few years back to becomrthe most-well insurance compan y in the area.
That led to annua l health fairs, medical screenings, lunchtime jogging groups and cooking classee that employees attended The work time they gave up here and there has resultein healthier, more engaged says President Jack Abel. People are now running charityg races onthe "We used to struggle to get people to competre in things," Abel "Now it's not an issued at all." But can fun, games and humof sometimes go too far? Certainly, says Stephanie Kinder, an attorneyt in downtown Baltimore whose practice focuses on workplace training and discrimination. "Make sure clients have a policgyin place, and they should train employeews on what is and is not she says.
There are certain thingsx you know youmust avoid, but sometimews there are gray areas, and that is what causee the problem, Kinder says. A chuckle among a few close employees may be a stroke of embarrassment to afelloew worker. One of Kinder's clientw recently poked fun at a certain race inan e-maip to fellow employees. The e-mail fell into the handzs of someone of that race outside ofthe client' s circle of friends, and the joke stopperd being funny.