IF it's true that he who laughs last doesn't get it, then there's something I'm not privy to in the whole laughter arena, as it seems seriously unfunny.

Watching wistfully as other people's half-baked strategies unravel and irrational 'advancements' implode for the higher-ups at work can be hilarious.

And there's no denying that the sneaked sniggers in the canteen do more to foster team spirit and group bonding than all the tree-hugging and case study exercises promulgated by focus group gurus ever will.

Having a laugh is life-affirming and even better when it's at the expense of someone we perceive as having somehow usurped us. But something tells me it's not this embittered variety of laughter the latest organisational fad is on about.

In a world where sense and intelligence are being bucked rapidly by impulse and idiotic notion, a little levelheaded laughter now and then has to be seen as a good thing, a sort of respite from the madness of modems, faxes, unsolicited emails and the pervasive egomania which are the mainstay of most modern workplaces.

Guffawing at the odd bad judgment which passes for senior decision-making may be commonplace already, and smirking at the limited and sketchy information being bandied about as fact, resulting in big plans falling flat, can be fun.

But the arrival of the laughter lounges to the Irish workplace brings about more laughter at them than with them among the saner of us? it may just be a laugh all the way to bank for the marketeers and therapists, aka manipulators and chancers offering comic relief as an antidote to the drudgery and desperation that working brings about.

Laughing their heads off may be the way staff in the notoriously sombre banks and financial institutions, insurance houses and IT companies spend their training days now that nothing else has brought happiness to the workplace. But what ever happened to the odd, relatively trouble-free smile now and then, leaving the laughter for leisure time?

US corporate giants Kodak and IBM have both employed 'humour consultants' to transform nightmarish management scenarios. Laughter rooms will be next, according to disciples of fun therapy, so that laughter breaks will take the place of the smoke break of old.

'Going for a quick laugh' may seem an ideal way to break up the work day, but while humour obviously represents many aspects of sophisticated thinking and higher-order cognitive processing, mere laughter is indicative of nothing special, and may just mean someone has totally lost their grasp on reality and is no longer functioning at work.

And what's wrong with the more sanguine symptoms of general well being of yesteryear - the chirpy 'good morning', the dignified salutations exchanged over coffee and the occasional shared smile or two at the water fountain or when clients or customers are in sight? Are they all to be replaced rapidly by belly laughter, hilarity, building up 'humour habits' and indulging in regular giggling sessions?

Companies such as Glaxo and Volvo have organised laughing clubs at their US worksites, and 'joyologist' - tee hee - Steven Wilson from Ohio is urging corporate America to bring games, playfulness, laughter and fun to the board rooms and canteens of a new generation of workers.

An article in Personality Today (Jan 07) promoting laughter and hilarity at work cites 2004 research carried out at the University of Maryland which indicates that workplaces have to have more laughing. Laughter, they say, is the answer to most workplace ills and those who laugh regularly at work - not exactly 'at' the workload, but while at work - are a more productive, healthier and happier lot.

Laughter increase blood pressure function, reduces hormonal secretions associated with stress, and immunises us from disease and infection, boosting staff retention and enhancing performance at work, the theory goes.

The link between laughter and improved health has been studied many times and 'humour consultant' (now that's funny) Kate Hull Rogers contends that making people laugh at work means major performance improvement, more creative thinking and an unlocking of the hidden talents that our sombre work personas camouflage.

John Cremer of The Happiness Project agrees. They may both be laughing at their own ingenious marketing on this one, although William Fry of Stanford University is also a devotee of the guffaw and points out that one hour of belly laughing can't be bad as it burns up 500 calories. You can be thin and laughing away but still 'to be avoided', can't you?

That sitting around chortling to yourself for an hour at work may well lead to accusations of gross misconduct and a prompt and unfunny presentation of the P45 isn't mentioned by Fry, but no doubt hours spent 'developing the humour habit' at work will spark resultant mirth and contagious uplifting jocularity on the dole.

Why we're all not falling down the sides of our swivel chairs and rolling around the aisles of our offices and factories and garages and shops every few minutes seems pretty clear to me.

There's nothing very funny about working, unless we are laughing at other people's misfortunes, and that's usually done in private for reasons of diplomacy and self-preservation.

It may now be fashionable to lament the passing of seriousness at work and embrace this new 'fun place to work' ethos, as though the entertainment industry had gradually expanded its range to include the 35 or so hours we spend in paid employment, but the deployment of such subversive workplace weaponry as irony, sarcasm wit and mockery, dressed up as humour, is serious stuff and not to be taken lightly.

We jokers run the risk of being cast aside as marginal figures stuck in the corporate fools' corners, giggling to ourselves while everyone else swops seriously knowing looks and continues their serious ways knowing full well the jokers are viewed with disdain.

The brutal truth is that work is not supposed to be fun, but it does pay for it. And the funlessness of being at work means that when we eventually get out into the world of entertainment, we really appreciate it. Think hordes of offices staff at 'after-work drinks' or seasonal work excursions for orchestrated hilarity to encouraged bonding - a laugh a minute, not.

There is much work to be done before we'll be heading into the office for a laugh, despite the plethora of workplace consultants telling us otherwise.

Fortunately for the occupational psychology profession, whose job it is to ensure leaders of workplaces at least pay lip service to reducing displeasure and disaffection among the workforce, the main business aim remains to reduce exposure to unreasonable stresses and strains and the development of improved human systems at work - laughter and fun can wait.

Happier workers may well be more productive workers, but nobody wants a factory full of miscreants rolling around in tears of laughter as the equivalent of the Wall Street Crash hits the share price and murmurs of impending liquidation become real while they remain oblivious to it all. Ha ha.