Hooray! It’s time for another laugh-a-minute day at the office. Or at least, it can be if you know how to use humour to tackle workplace stress. Find out whether you’re getting it right with this quiz

To paraphrase Basil Fawlty, you may think that work is not a place you go to have a good time. With that attitude, you can hardly expect your working day to be fun.

The alternative is to take the advice of consultancy Humour Us, which gave a talk at the National Housing Federation conference this week and has run seminars on the value of humour in the workplace for more than 20 housing associations. According to joint owner Bill Rodgers, housing staff are in as much need of a laugh as any private sector worker.

“In housing, it can be easy to take complaints personally, especially when you’re the first point of contact,” he says. “It can be more stressful than working in a private company. Humour, if shared for a common cause, will enliven a workplace.

“It’s about relaxing, embracing the day and working for a common theme.”

However, as fans of The Fast Show’s office joker Colin Hunt (left) know, trying too hard can also backfire when people are trying to work. “You don’t want an environment of enforced frivolity,” says Rodgers.

And he warns against going too far, saying that offensive jokes or making one person the subject of too many pranks can have the opposite effect. “Don’t use expletives for the sake of it and don’t let other colleagues be the brunt of your humour.”

So, to see if your humour muscles could do with a work-out or whether you’re the person everyone wants to sit next to, make yourself (and your colleagues) a cup of tea and try this quiz.

1 It’s a fancy dress day in the office to raise money for charity and you’ve heard that everyone at work is making an effort. Do you:

A: Phone a fancy dress shop a month in advance to reserve the Bernie Clifton ostrich legs get-up and start practising a funny walk

B: Wear a turquoise and pink shellsuit you found in the back of the wardrobe but take it off before you go out to lunch

C: Come in wearing your normal work clothes but stick £10 in the charity tin – you didn’t have time to find a costume but, at the end of the day, it’s about raising money.

2 You’ve just got off the phone to an angry tenant who regularly complains about stuff that’s out of your control. Do you:

A: Treat the rest of the team to an unflattering impersonation of this tenant and their latest complaint

B: Joke to your neighbour that you wish you really were omnipotent as some tenants seem to think

C: Seethe quietly and try to work out how to screen your calls for next time.

3 While talking to some of your maintenance contractors, one of them tells a rather off-colour Essex girl joke. Do you:

A: Laugh loudly and contribute your own, equally racy, anecdote

B: Muster a chuckle and try not to blush before leaving the group as soon as you can

C: Choose a quiet moment to ask the joke-teller to tone it down in future.

4 Mrs Jones is meant to be moving into a new flat today, but you’ve lost her keys. She’s waiting in reception. Do you:

A: Try to persuade her to see the funny side of her wasted journey

B: Admit that it’s a cock-up and start working out where you can get a copy of the keys

C: Berate yourself. You don’t blame her for being angry.

The new benefits system has crashed your computer and you’ve lost the information you were inputting. You’ve tried hitting random buttons and shouting, to no effect. Do you:

A: Realise everyone’s looking at you and start pretending to be a Nazi officer interrogating an uncooperative prisoner

B: Take a deep breath and find a colleague to commiserate with until the IT guy arrives

C: Find a quiet corner to panic in private.

Who’s the practical joker at your place of work?

A: You – it’s your speciality and you work with people who take pranks really well

B: No one really, although if you saw an opportunity you might try it

C: There isn’t one, thank goodness. It’s just victimisation by another name.

Do you have in-jokes with your colleagues?

A: Of course! The secret language of the team is what binds us together

B: There are one or two phrases that crop up occasionally and some notorious anecdotes

C: My colleagues seem to have in-jokes, but not with me.

Do you ever send joke emails to your co-workers?

A: I’m known for it. The saucier the better

B: Yes, if someone sends a particularly funny forward or I find a website that cracks me up

C: I sometimes get them, but don’t forward them – the company can see all your emails.

Mostly As: FUN-TIME FRANKIE
You have no problem finding ways to have fun at work, and that’s great. “Nine out of 10 people like the office joker – the one that spreads a little humour and encourages people to talk to each other,” Rodgers says. Just make sure your joking doesn’t start to interfere with yours or other people’s work. A good in-joke can help bind a team together – but only if everybody gets them. Try to share them with people who missed out the first time. And be very careful about practical jokes, Rodgers warns. If the same person is always the butt of them, even if they don’t say anything or even if they like you, they’ll get sick of it eventually. Finally, although there’s nothing wrong with having a bit of a rant after dealing with a difficult tenant, Rodgers cautions that it’s important not to bear grudges.

Mostly Bs: POPULAR PERCY
You tend to enjoy work and know how to lighten the mood in stressful situations without annoying people. You probably have in-jokes that remind everyone of funny events, but you don’t use them all the time. This helps build shared memories, which is great for bonding, says Rodgers. “It’s like sharing a folklore,” he says. But you do get uncomfortable if someone cracks a joke you find offensive. Rodgers says: “You’re allowed to say, ‘I don’t like that sort of humour’.” Most company policies are weighted in favour of workers who have been offended rather than the joker, so don’t put up with this. If you unwittingly offend someone else, apologise and be more careful in future.

Mostly Cs: STRESSED-OUT SANDY
You don’t like to make a fool of yourself at work – but while it’s fine to keep a low profile, you could use humour more to relax with colleagues, Rodgers says. This doesn’t just mean cracking jokes, though. “It’s about de-stressing and being able to see the lighter side of situations.” He suggests dealing with stress by making jokes at your own expense: if the computer breaks and you’ve been shouting at it, take a step back. “It’s OK to say, ‘I can’t figure it out and I’m being a bit daft’,” he says. If you’re not used to cracking jokes, have a go anyway or prepare a few in advance, even if they’re ones you’ve heard comedians use. “Sometimes it’s better to make a joke that’s not very funny than say nothing. But never prefix it by saying ‘here’s a very unfunny joke’.” Email humour can help, but you’re right to be concerned about content: watch out for anything that could offend or might contain a virus and check how strict your company policy is.

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Housing Today