Seeing the funny side of things

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Seeing the funny side of things

Senior managers at banks are often accused of being humourless and dour. But a good friend of mine has been pleasantly surprised to learn that they aren't always so — at least at his organisation.

The chap has not always had the best of relationships with his boss and has often got into trouble for making light of things at the most inappropriate times, especially at client meetings.

His way of thinking is to try to find the funny side in everything — especially now when many people in the banking world are either worrying about their bonuses, or worse, getting the axe.

Realising his growing disdain for investment banking, my friend decided to exact revenge by giving his Wifi router at home a name phonetically similar to his bank’s but which was also a profanity.

All was well until an unexpected home visit from the boss.

The boss’s internet connection was acting up so he decided to connect to my friend’s Wifi. The poor fellow watched nervously as the names of various routers appeared including his pejorative bank name.

Trying his best to look contrite while avoiding eye contact, the chap waited resignedly for the storm to hit him. But instead of ticking him off, his boss roared with laughter.

“That’s brilliant,” he said. “About sums up what our bank is at the moment. Shame I can’t do it myself.”

And that was that, with my friend eventually ending up in the boss’s inner circle. Luckily for me though, his sense of humour has remained intact.

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