By PAUL MITCHISON
Burlington Post / June 14, 2002
Nina Spencer likes to refer to it as HDS, or Humour Deficiency Syndrome — the overly-serious person at the office who seldom smiles and never seems to laugh.
A colleague or a boss with HDS can make working life difficult to bear. Energy and enthusiasm levels are affected negatively for all those working with the HDS sufferer, whose condition can be acute, chronic or terminal.
The Toronto-based motivational speaker enthralled a room of more than 150 teachers, students and business representatives at the spring meeting of the Halton Industry Education Council (HIEC), held Wednesday at the Burlington Conference Centre.
Spencer feels the best antidote is for the employee to strive to laugh and demonstrate good humor, in spite of another’s HDS. All too often, the HDS victim actually wants to laugh. She showed a slide of two porcupines, and one of whom is saying — “Just once, I’d like to be petted.”
“The benefits of keeping your sense of humor are good for your health as well as your spirit,” she said. “Three to five minutes of intese laughter can double your heart rate, the equivalent of three minutes on a rowing machine.”
Humour, preserverance, enthusiasm and positive thinking were amoung several things Spencer cited to help people get passion out their profession. “Life is change, work is change. Growth and passion are optional…and each one of us gets to choose.”
Over the past decade, the HIEC has delivered career education programs to more than 50,000 students in Halton. The primary focus of the organization is to help co-ordinate and promote learning programs that hlep students experience the working world.
