Zappo's is one of the hippest companies in the country. It started off selling shoes online and now sells a whole lot of stuff to the tune of more than a billion dollars a year. Based in Las Vegas, it's not unusual for the company to ask potential employees, "How weird are you?" And when asked what skill he would most like to improve, Tony Hsieh, Zappo's young CEO, says, "Humor." Which might explain why his commercials feature odd little puppets instead of odd little actors.
 
But does humor belong in the workplace?
 
According to some researchers, it does. In their study, "The Case for Developing New Research on Humor and Culture in Organizations: Toward a Higher Grade of Manure" (what's with these long titles?), researchers analyzed theories on humor, emotion and mood from several hundred studies in the fields of psychology, sociology, anthropology, philosophy and communications. (Okay, I'm tired just reading about the research...and they had to do it.)
 
Here's what they discovered....drum roll please. Humor is serious business.
 
"The ability to appreciate humor, the ability to laugh and make other people laugh has physiological effects on the body that cause people to become more bonded," says study contributor Chris Robert.  Humor also enhances creativity, team cohesiveness and overall workplace performance. "The ability to make things funny is associated with intelligence and creativity, both highly valued in the workplace," Robert notes. (My nephew makes things funny at family gatherings when he belches "Green Day" tunes. Creative? Sure...but I'm reserving judgment on "intelligence".)
 
David Abramis at Cal State Long Beach has studied humor at work for many years. His take? People who have fun and laugh at work are more productive, better decision-makers, get along better with co-workers and have fewer absentee, late and sick days than people who aren't laughing at work. Not to mention they also have a better shot at getting their own reality show.
 
More fodder for fun...98 percent of CEO's polled prefer candidates with a sense of humor. And 84 percent of executives think that employees with a sense of humor do a better job than those without one. The remaining 16% work on Wall Street and they're still mad that they have to be regulated like everybody else.
 
Shoot, even our federal government understands the importance of humor in the workplace. Just last year, the Bureau of Public Debt was looking for an expert to deliver a workshop on the subject. Unfortunately, the Bureau of Public Debt was in so much debt that it canceled the workshop.
 
The reality is...most companies discourage humor in the workplace. And the perception too many managers have when they see employees laughing is that they're simply "goofing off" and don't take their jobs "seriously". What a buzz kill.
 
Why the disconnect?
 
Probably the biggest reason humor's not encouraged in the workplace is that it can go so wrong and be so unfunny - and downright offensive - when it crosses the line. (Dying is easy, comedy is hard.) It's especially challenging in really diverse organizations. Robert says, "Some people have suggested that you just avoid humor all together - don't be funny, don't try to make jokes. We reject that." Good...we need to remember that humor's the medium, not the message.
 
Instead, Robert suggests finding common ground that carries jokes across cultures. "People find things funny when you take two things and you connect them in an unexpected way. The very work you're doing provides common expectations you can build on - customers, clients, yourself, suppliers...and there are general human experiences that anyone can share, like funny things kids say. (My little cousin says people are only allowed to get married once and it's called monotony.) Where people get into trouble is stepping on expectations like religion, ethnicity or other values." And sarcasm also has no business in the workplace. It's easy to take shots but sarcasm's only "value" is to make someone feel small. If that's where you go with humor, save it for the Chuckle Hut, not the weekly staff meeting.
 
The truth is...not everybody thinks "funny". But most of us have the capacity to think "sideways" and most of us can appreciate someone else's "funny". And that's really all it takes to celebrate humor - in the workplace or in life.
 
By the way, every time you have a good hearty laugh, you burn 3.5 calories. Twenty good belly guffaws and you can have yourself an Oreo cookie, no guilt.
 
Now back to the original question - "How weird are you?"