How to help your fellow coworkers with sarcasm!

One thing I really find annoying (well, there are quite a few things I personally find annoying) is the fact that people who don’t quite appreciate sarcasm and it’s helpful, constructive, team building uses.  If you think about it, sarcasm is quite useful in a number of business situations.  It helps to keep that crazy new fad business ideas in check.  If a co-worker has a stupid idea, isn’t it better to let them know now that is a seriously stupid idea with a little well placed sarcasm?  What is the alterative?  You could let them take their stupid idea it to your boss and let her deal with it?  But does that really help your coworker out?  Does it help them become a better employee?

Suppose your coworker comes up with an idea that would involve slamming cute little kitty’s paws in the door of a car?  Now, that is a pretty stupid idea, right?

Doesn’t a well structure sarcastic comment such as:

“And my fairy godmother is going to help too!” when your co-worker suggests the slamming of a cute little kitty’s paws in a car’s door idea.  That is really much better than saying:

“Dude, that is a stupid idea.”

Really, the sarcastic comment is clearly a career saver compared to the easy, put down comment.  You are doing your co-worker a favor by being sarcastic.  Your co-worker would certainly appreciate and admire your ability to point out the flaws in his idea in a humorous manner.  If you weren’t sarcastic, you would simply default to the mean “stupid” comment.  That does nothing to help your co-worker understand that their idea is utterly brain-dead.  Plus this gives them an excuse to backslide and evaluate what they thought originally was a good idea but clearly it isn’t.  You have given them the time to improve their idea and come up with ways to make it better.  You have saved them embarrassment of taking that unimproved idea to their boss before it’s time.  You have made the idea and the employee better off in the long run. 

See how sarcasm is a good thing?

So go out there and keep up the good work my fellow sarcastic helpers!