Humour in the workplace...

During the debt crisis in the USA (To understand the origins of the US debt crisis, it is necessary to revisit an event which took place in Boston Harbour nearly 238 years ago. On December 16, 1773, a group of Massachusetts colonists boarded ships belonging to the East India Company and threw the entire cargo into the sea. There, in tax rebellion, began the American Revolution.** See footnote below for further explanation as to why this has led to the current crisis) is a very serious problem that affects us all. However, even with the impending doom that was another financial crisis even the White House was able to lighten the mood.

Responding to criticism during a Twitter chat, the White House offered users a link to "something more fun". The link pointed to a YouTube video of UK pop singer Rick Astley's 1987 number one hit Never Gonna Give You Up. This is known as 'Rickrolling” and has been going on for years, famously duping web users into clicking a link to that song or flash mob dancing to the song or playing the song over a loud speaker has seen almost 36.5 million people watch Astley's YouTube video.

Thus showing that humour is an important quality for all businesses to be able to use, but it should be used correctly. I don't think a raspberry email in response to a request for a refund would be quite the kind of humour that should be considered appropriate for a business. 

Here at u-ni-k we've been discussing humour for a long time, sometimes even without funny bits, because we want to launch a page dedicated to the funny things children say or do. I grew up with my parents writing things down in the 'funny sayings book', cringeworthy as it was paraded in front of the new boyfriends by my siblings but an absolute treasure now that I look forward to sharing with my Daughter when she's older!

So if your child has parted with a witty saying or told something as it is - straight out of the mouth of babes as they say. Please share with us on our Facebook page, we'd love to share them with all our u-ni-k friends. If we get enough we may even start a funny sayings book of our own!

In the meantime I'll share one of my families' funny sayings:

Brother in the bath:

'Dad I've got brains in my willy!'

Dad replies: 'Not until your 18 son!' 

[He meant veins not brains!]

**This iconic event in US history, the one from which the modern Tea Party takes its name, helped establish a national aversion to taxation that has remained at the heart of the American psyche ever since. For a people defined by the idea of rugged individualism, self-reliance and the frontier spirit, the presumption of low taxes – and correspondingly small government – is an article of faith as sacred as motherhood and apple pie. However in the current global financial picture this has meant that the USA is broke, owned by China and needs to raise much needed funds before it defaults on its debt)