Horseplay on the Job
by Randy Quickel, Service Director
Daily life on the job can be boring. After all, once you've learned the work routine, there's frequently energy left that can be used for practical jokes. These jokes are commonplace on the job, and form a means by which life can become more interesting.
Practical jokes are one thing but horseplay, can be quite another. In general terms, horseplay tends to involve a more physical kind of "joke" that the person on the receiving end and the company may not view as funny, or may be taken wrong, or both.
The problem is that the target of the "joke" may be in a bad mood on a particular day, or the "joke" gets out of hand, leading to an altercation in which words or even fists may fly. The result: a discipline or discharge. What started out as in the jokester's mind as a joke ends up in the Union's lap as a grievance.
Nearly all workplaces have rules that make horseplay an offense punishable by discipline or discharge. So, as the Service Director of the Union, leg me offer a little preventive advice to any jokester out there. Bad things can happen if your humor is misinterpreted or agitating.
So let's look out for one another on the job and make sure that we talk and help each other make good decisions while on the job and not get into a problem that we will regret later.
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