Laugh And Get Rich Day

What the day is

Laugh and Get Rich Day is observed on February 8. The claim in the name is not supported by anything, but the underlying subject has a real research literature.

Origin and background

The origin of the observance is not documented.

Studies of humor in organizations generally find associations with better team cohesion, higher reported job satisfaction and lower burnout, and some work links a manager's use of humor to how competent and confident subordinates judge them. The direction of causation is the usual problem: pleasant teams laugh more, and laughing more may make teams pleasant, and the studies mostly cannot separate the two. What can be said is that humor and functioning workplaces travel together.

The important qualifier is that type matters more than quantity. Researchers distinguish affiliative humor, which includes everyone, from aggressive humor, which is directed at somebody. The first tracks with the benefits. The second predicts the opposite, and a manager who jokes at a subordinate's expense is doing measurable harm while believing they are building rapport. Self-deprecating humor from a person in authority generally lands well; the same from someone junior and insecure does not.

There is also a negotiation finding worth knowing, which is probably the closest the day gets to its premise: light humor early in a negotiation has been shown to increase liking and, in some experiments, improve outcomes, apparently by making the other side more willing to cooperate.

The honest summary is that humor is a lubricant rather than an engine. It makes people easier to work with, and being easy to work with is genuinely valuable.

How to take part

• Aim humor at the situation or yourself, never at a person with less power than you.
• Notice whether the quiet people in a meeting are laughing or waiting.
• Open a difficult conversation lightly, which is where the negotiation research points.
• Let a team be funny rather than scheduling funniness, which never works.
• Treat the get rich part as the joke it is.