If you don't laugh, you get an email: Company tests laughter detector

Basel (Switzerland) - Laughing is good for your health. A Basel-based insurance company is now testing a laughter detector to ensure that this also works in the office.

Working in an office can be exhausting. People who are under too much stress usually rarely laugh.
Working in an office can be exhausting. People who are under too much stress usually rarely laugh.  © Daniel Naupold/dpa

The Swiss insurance company Baloise has come up with a curious idea. From now on, anyone who rarely laughs will receive an e-mail to cheer them up, such as a meme or a funny video.

The reason for this is the so-called Chief-LOL-Officer, a new laughter detector that records the frequency of loud laughter in the office and uses the recorded audio data to measure job satisfaction.

The small device looks like a handy loudspeaker and has a microphone. As Nau.ch reports, the device uses artificial intelligence to avoid confusing laughter with other ambient noises.

"On average, an adult laughs around 15 times a day, so we said: four laughs in two hours should be possible, anything less is not enough," says project manager Alexandra Toscanelli.

If you laugh less often, for example because you are stressed, you get an e-mail to cheer you up. A social media agency has collected the best from the Internet for this purpose.

Laughter detector project to promote the mental health of office workers

The Swiss company Baloise uses a laughter detector to test workplace satisfaction. (symbolic image)
The Swiss company Baloise uses a laughter detector to test workplace satisfaction. (symbolic image)  © 123RF/vadymvdrobot

The unusual project aims to strengthen mental health . According to Baloise, Swiss companies lose CHF 6.5 billion a year because employees' mental health is impaired.

The topic is particularly relevant for small and medium-sized companies. "Mental health problems are still talked about much less than a broken leg," said Toscanelli and admitted: "Laughter is not the solution to everything. You also need to have contact persons, hotlines and help centers."

Incidentally, the detector is not being tested at Baloise itself, but at a long-standing business customer of the insurance company with ten employees: the online company formation portal Fasoon.

The test is scheduled to last four weeks. Once the project has been completed and evaluated, the aim is to check whether the encouragement measures by e-mail were successful.