Long hours at the office can rob you of your fun loving side! Our communications guru Nina Spencer tells you why it's important to crack a joke every now and then with coworkers.

Are you really laughing enough when it's tasteful, timely and appropriate? When was the last time you had a good belly laugh? Hard to remember? That gut-splitting group laugh can help whole teams, and even friends and family, through crazy-busy, stressful, demanding days and difficult times. So powerful is this experience, even years later, the mere mention of that funny moment can transport those who shared in the original laughter. When it comes to bonding and balancing, anything that joyfully brings people together is a good thing.

The old school espoused, if you were laughing, productivity was suffering; but a transformation really does occur when people laugh while working together. That's one of the reasons company off-site retreats are so worthwhile. Your don't need to teach people to be funny and enjoy some humour, you just have to give them a time, a place and permission.

Champion humour in your workplace, and in your private circle, too, to help keep your sanity and sense of balance. Be the one who makes it happen. Opening up to your sense of humour and play--that you know is still in their somewhere--helps elevate passion for your work and life, and will also enhance your team's commitment to one another.

And while you're at it, also create opportunities for bonding through humour with those who don't normally work together, but who work for the same organization. Some well-placed humour can go a long way to increasing inter-divisional or inter-regional communications and co-operation. It's human nature to want to help those you like and know, and what better way to advance that dynamic, than sharing some good guffaws.

At work, the bond of laughter helps promote team harmony and productivity, and can also help protect your personal grace to serve your customers in a most honourable fashion, even when they're difficult or downright rude or disrespectful.

With friends and family, accessing your sense of humour at just the right moment, can short-circuit a strained situation from developing into a full-blown fight or weeks of low-grade tension and animosity. Humour really can, and often does, save the day.

Remember, the less you laugh, the less you laugh. And you can't make them into something you are not. So start with yourself, and inspire others to follow your lead.