Let's face it: Every now and then, bringing a little levity to the office dynamic can be a welcome change of pace.
If you're a comic at heart, the trouble with clean jokes is they're not as funny as the more colorful anecdotes you could share. But levity crosses a line when it includes mild flirting, physical horseplay, or the telling of racist, sexist, or judgmentally-oriented jokes with coworkers. Sooner or later, off-color joke telling, pranks, and other questionable choices of amusement will earn an employee the grown-up, work-related reputation of "class clown." And, just as in school, there are costs and consequences for being the clown. Similarly, being tagged as the office gossip, stool pigeon, rabble-rouser, or rebel, doesn't score many Brownie points either.
When tagged with a reputation, one loses the benefit of the doubt when placed in an ambiguous situation. The question that will always be asked of witnesses or related parties in an investigation of allegations is this: Was it in the person's character to behave that way?
