Corrections or additions?
These articles by Melinda Sherwood were published in U.S. 1
Newspaper on December 8, 1999. All rights reserved.
A Laugh a Day, Keeps . . .
Stephen Klein keeps a koosh ball on his desk,
a smiley coffee mug close by, and in the afternoon, he faxes his
clients
funny cartoons. You might call him a CPA, or “comic” public
accountant. His motto: always mix business with pleasure.
“We need to take our work seriously, and take ourselves
lightly,”
says Klein, who teaches the Princeton Chamber how to “Jest for
Success” on Wednesday, December 15, at 7:15 a.m. “Once you
give yourself permission to do that, it changes your state of
mind,”
says Klein, a partner at Klatzkin & Company LLP at 1670
Whitehorse-Hamilton
Square Road. Call 609-520-1776. Cost: $21.
Klein was born in Indianapolis, where his father was also a CPA. He
graduated from Indiana State University, with a BS in accounting,
Class of 1963, and naturally, he took his profession and himself very
seriously. Then, in 1990, he suffered a decline in health that caused
him to shake off the old attitude. That’s when he attended the Humor
Conference in Saratoga Springs, New York, where he was one of 1,200
people in an auditorium that was coaxed into singing silly songs like
“I am a Pizza.” At first, he says, the serious businesspeople
in the crowd were hesitant to join in the shenanigans, but then
“someone
started laughing, and before you know it everybody started
laughing.”
“We get so serious about our work and you get so focused on the
minutia,” says Klein, “that you don’t get to use your right
brain, the creative side, and sometimes that seriousness carries over
to your personal life and it shouldn’t. I was looking for more fun
in my life.”
A child laughs 400 times a day; adults laugh sometimes fewer than
15 times a day, says Klein. Why should we care? “They’ve proven
through research that laughter has a positive effect on your immune
system — endorphins are released in the brain, which is the body’s
natural pain killer.”
There’s a place for laughter and levity even in the most serious
occupations,
says Klein. Take aviation for instance. “Southwest Airlines,
profitable
over 25 years, is the only airline that can boast that it looks for
a sense of humor in the employees that they hire,” says Klein.
“The stewardesses crack jokes and do things in a funny way.”
Humor relaxes your customers and clients, but it can also be an
effective
way of communicating important messages, says Klein. “Business
managers or others spend 94 percent of their time communicating,”
says Klein, “and if you can add humor in that communication in
some form it’s shown that the messages are remembered longer and
you’re
building a rapport with the person.”
Ways to jest successfully:
Keep playful things around the office, whether it meanskeeping toys close at hand, or joke books lying around.Take a humor break instead of a coffee break. “Youtake a humor break and read funny books,” says Klein. “I faxcartoons to clients, or post them on bulletin boards.Spread cheer from the top. “The key at work is thattop management has to make it OK,” says Klein. “They haveto learn to make fun of themselves.”Mix business with pleasure. This allows you to be morerelaxed at work, says Klein, and “if you’re in a more relaxedstate, you can think things through clearly.”Keep it positive. “There’s positive and negativehumor,”says Klein. “I don’t think anybody should ever make a joke aboutsomeone else — about religion, or nationality, or sex. There’senough funny things that you can do and people can have a goodlaugh.”Not all humor is universally appreciated, but funniness, saysKlein, is a trait in each of us. “I think everybody has a senseof humor but it’s buried,” says Klein. “Just because you’rean adult doesn’t mean you can’t still be playful.”(https://www.klatzkin.com)Top Of PageWhen An Executive Turns BadWhen it was still known as “going postal,” thoseof working for private companies could shrug it off. Now it’shappeningat corporations like Xerox and in brokerage houses: an employee’sangst progresses to the point of deadly violence. On everybody’s mind:couldn’t anybody see this coming?In most cases, we do see it coming, says Naomi Vilko, apsychiatristwho specializes in treating corporate executives with problems rangingfrom substance abuse to depression, but “mostly people ignoreit. The two big problems with mental health are denial and the stigma.The more knowledge you have, the better.”Vilko of Vilko Corporate Consulting and Nupur Lahiri of theLife Enhancement Institute are two psychiatrists in the area focusingon mental-illness, corporate-style: burn-out, depression, anxiety,and on occasion, violence. At the Life Enhancement Institute at 10Jefferson Plaza (609-924-0912), Lahiri focuses on patients’ overallwell-being using a variety of approaches including yoga, massage,nutrition, counseling, and old-fashioned psychiatry — all offeredunder one roof.Although Vilko sees many of her patients in her office at 419 NorthHarrison Street (609-924-3225, E-mail naomivilko@aol.com), shealso prefers to go inside the belly of the beast — Vilko workswith management teams at places like Merrill Lynch and Bristol-MyersSquibb on company turf, helping them integrate key employees, improvethe corporate culture, and enhance communication. “It’s kind oflike detective work, figuring out which part of your job is stressful,and then trying to do something about it,” she says. “A lotof these type A personalities have never learned how to relax andhave fun — they’ve only learned how to get ahead.”In practice since 1985, Vilko graduated from medical school at thetender age of 23. Since her parents were both immigrants who enduredthe Holocaust (her mother was in Auschwitz), Vilko knew she wantedto have a career that was “transportable,” should she everhad to leave the country. She grew up in Manhattan, where her parents,both Hungarian immigrants from Prague, ran a gourmet grocery store.When her father died, it was clear to Vilko she would be paying herown way through school. She decided to do it quickly.She graduated in three years from Columbia, Class of 1972, and wentto New York Medical College. She became a professor of psychiatryat Mt. Sinai Medical School and then Robert Wood Johnson (formerlyRutgers). She was director of the Alcohol and Substance Abuse Unitat Princeton Hospital in 1985, during an era of massive corporateconsolidation and lay-offs. It was then that she launched hercorporateconsulting career, especially working with companies undergoingmergers.”When a company merges there’s a clash of cultures, people arefired and hired,” she explains. “It’s an unstablesituation.”Today most of Vilko’s patients suffer from burn out, sleeplessness,and addictions to alcohol or substances. The typical executivepatient:40-something with children, nice, intelligent, socially skilled. Onlyone problem: they’re not enjoying anything, says Vilko. “Theywork too many hours during the week, and then hibernate on theweekends,”she says. “The people who work in New York leave the house at6:30 a.m. and get home at 7:30 p.m. I tell them that no one can dothat indefinitely. You could have a heart attack.”That doesn’t make them gun-toting employees necessarily, but not everybad seed is easy to spot. “There are stages of violence –the person doesn’t come right in with a gun,” she says. For thosewho start expressing their angst, the signs might be subtle at first.”First you say something to them and they jump at you, or evencurse, and they become more argumentative. They seem very irritableand say bad things about the company.”Some examples of behavior that indicates an employee needs treatment,says Vilko:Performance declines.There are accusations of sexual harassment.Irritability and depression are prominent.Suicidal tendencies.Poor sleeping patterns and fatigue.Drinking problems.When an employee begins to brag about their artillery at home,it could be too late, says Vilko. “Once someone is identifiedwith alcoholism or depression you can’t fire them — they’redisabledand you have to treat them,” she says.The key is to nip it in the “id,” says Vilko. “If someonehas cancer, early detection is obviously the way to go” she says.”The hope of managed care has been preventative medicine but it’svery difficult to see a psychiatrist. I noticed that I was gettingpatients at a much later date in their illness. My hope is that somepeople will begin to send themselves, but they could be sent by theemployer. The companies often have invested a lot of money in peoplethey’re good at what they do. The company wants to keep itsinvestment.”Next StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
