Office clown’s antics nothing to laugh about

Q: How do we handle a co-worker who always has to be “the life of the party” and clowns around all the time?

Sometimes he’s helpful in reducing our stress, but most of the time, he just keeps us off track in discussions. — Zach B.

A: Trying to tone down the office clown is sometimes like trying to catch the greased pig at the county fair. The clown and the pig are lively, often funny, and always “on stage.” But they do tend to drift out of focus. And they sometimes have an audience that really enjoys their antics.

Office clowns often disrupt progress of work by telling jokes, making fun of some problem in the company, or just keeping the spotlight on themselves. Office comics are rarely serious about anything.

To those trying to get work done, clowns project immaturity, insincerity and incompetence. And, bottom line, they usually create more tension than relief, because meetings and problem-solving discussions often take longer than they should.

Unless you deal with this person firmly, you’ll get more of the same, because he or she takes your silence that you like the performance.

While office clowns appear to have their act together, they usually have a poor self-image, and are trying to cover it up with humor. They often lack hard data or information to solve the problem, and cover their insecurity or lack of information by showing off.

Think about the behavior of a child showoff, and you have a mirror image of the office clown — several years later. As with the child, the clown constantly wants the attention of other people.

What seems to work best is to respond negatively or totally ignore him or her and respond positively with praise when you see appropriate behavior.

But what if the clown is the boss? Same problem, but your approach has to be more subtle.

Try diverting his attention when he comes by and starts “clowning around.” It’s a good bet that this kind of boss craves your attention and wants you to like him, so use that as your tool to deal with him.

Have a project or report set aside or ready that you can discuss with him when this occurs. Don’t interrupt his “act” unless it’s dragging on. When he gets to a natural pause, say something like, “You’ve got a great way of looking at things. Marion, we have a serious problem I need your help with. Here’s the situation …” and get right into the specifics. If he makes a joke out of your summary, outline the consequences if the problem isn’t handled seriously.

If these techniques don’t work, you may have to talk to the clown privately, point out his behavior is distracting and often causes decreased productivity, and ask for specific changes.