Gratitude Monday: Making 'em laugh

On this Gratitude Monday I’m grateful for a couple of things related to a job interview I had last week.

First of all—I had a job interview, with a company that develops interesting software and seems to have a pretty balanced (read: European) approach to the work-life issue. I await next steps with interest, even though I’m pursuing other opportunities in my pipeline because I’ve learned that it ain’t over until the fat lady has sung, taken her curtain calls and left in her limo.

But second, the portion of the interview with the HR person was very interesting, because she mostly wanted to know what kind of a human I am, with an emphasis on what I might bring to the company in the way of fun.

(I did tell her about organizing a going-away party for a colleague, which included a cow. And I told her for free that it’s not that easy to milk a cow.)

She inquired whether I’m still in contact with any of my former colleagues, and what they might say about me.

Well, thinking about this on my drive home, I recalled something that I wished I’d mentioned.

A couple of months ago I posted on Facebook that I’d won Best Table Topics at my first Toastmasters Club meeting. (There were only five people at the meeting, okay, but still…) One of my ex-workmates, JH, immediately asked, “Did you make them laugh?”

Well, I hadn’t—the topic was have you ever been to China, or if you hadn’t what would you like to see. I had no trouble waxing poetic about Shanghai, which has always seemed to me to be the most alluring, exotic city on earth.

But it did make me feel good that the first thing JH thought was that I make people laugh. We worked in a highly stressful environment and it’s not at all a bad thing to be known as someone who can lighten the atmosphere.

So in my follow-up email to the HR person, I mentioned this. It can’t hurt to let them know that not only do I know how to have fun, I can help other people do so, too.

With or without a cow.