“It’s funny because it’s true”. It’s such a cliché but things are often funny when they are close to reality. And you don’t get closer to reality than the office. Many of us spend most of our waking hours here so we have plenty time to see the inherent humour of the workplace environment.

Take a typical day at Video Arts towers for example. Lunchtime saw Candy the Marketing Exec photographing our cups of tea “to make sure everyone gets their tea made the right colour”. Ben the graduate trainee has just wasted one of his three allocated questions of the day (he has had his questions capped to encourage him to focus) by asking ‘can I ask a question?’ Elsewhere there is a conflict brewing about the boundary lines between desks: it’s only a matter of time before someone’s stapler ends up in jelly.

OK so I’m not about to quit my job and write a sitcom but, whether it’s the familiarity of the people or the situations, you can see why work-based comedy appeals to anyone who’s experienced office life.  Even if we recognise some of the traits of the awful manager/colleague in ourselves we can still laugh when we see our weaknesses played out externally.

Not everyone thinks that there’s a place for humour in corporate training, but for those of you who do, here’s a few of my favourite workplace training comedy quotes:

“If my staff get really truly and noticeably better, other departments will come in here and poach them” – a manager considers the downside of coaching. (From Pass It On)

“Initiative?! I tried that once and I didn’t like it.” – the IT guy who doesn’t like talking to people. (From Inside Information)

“I’ve just ordered new bidets for the unisex bathroom, maybe we could have a training day.”   “ A bidet-day?” – an off-the-wall approach to team morale (From Cutting Edge Comedy Clips)

Sally Winter is Head of Marketing at Video Arts