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Swearing at Work is Bleeping Good For You
coondoggie writes "This is the kind of news that your HR folks don't want to hear, but researchers today said letting workers swear at will in the workplace can benefit employees and employers.
The study found regular use of profanity to express and reinforce solidarity among staff, enabling them to express their feelings, such as frustration, and develop social relationships, according to researchers at the University of East Anglia (UES). Researchers said their aim was to challenge leadership styles and suggest ideas for best practice. "Employees use swearing on a continuous basis, but not necessarily in a negative, abusive manner. Swearing was as a social phenomenon to reflect solidarity and enhance group cohesiveness, or as a psychological phenomenon to release stress, " the study stated." I'm sure the discussion and tags on this story will be completely G Rated ;)
Yea, people can communicate withought swearing. But this limits 'how' you communicate.
Limiting vocabulary impeads what you are really trying to say.
I can appreciate that some people are offended by some words. That doesn't always mean that the words are inappropriate.
Wouldn't it lose it's luster if everyone were swearing all the time? I'm all for the unrestricted use of language everywhere, I think it's childish not to be, but wouldn't any positive side effects be related to the fact that being allowed to swear at work is unusual and kind of a privilege? Of course, once everyone got completely used to swearing, we'd all be better off anyway IMH fucking O.
Forcing people to behave artificially causes people to not be able to bond and communicate.
This rather obvious realization has been surfacing over the past few decades. 20 years ago professionals were expected to wear suits and ties to work. Today, most employers I've worked for only require that of sales people, or on certain ocassions. The average employee can wear jeans, at in their cube, swear, and scratch their butt. I think this leads to a more relaxed and more productive work environment.
Interestingly though, in the 80's, it was socially acceptable to have a drink during lunch. Now it is taboo to drink during work hours at all.
Actually, I'm finally at a work place where the IT department isn't F this and GD that. Frankly, I like it. You emulate those that you are around the most. I actually enjoy an environment that doesn't reward those talking like a salty sailor.
- Me Good luck making progress in that situation.
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I'm sorry you got that from my comment.
My only problem with working with females is in this particular context; if I say something off the cuff, in frustration, they'll view it as more significant than a guy would.
This is because they are, in many ways, better at communication than a guy would be, and more sensitive to nuance.
So you've got to watch what you say, because they pay attention, and they'll think about it more. A guy just hears, "wawawawa" noises contexted with a tone of voice. A female will hear what you actually say, and then think about it, then try to reconcile it with your subsequent and prior actions.
This is just a generalization. Lots of guys behave in what I'm representing as the "female" mode, and there are a lot of women who pay as little or less attention to what you're saying as a guy would.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
I think yours is a perfect account of recognition for what may generally be perceived as poor intelligence and/or blatant disrespect on the part of the potty mouth. I swear all the time too: at home, in the office, to friends, to family, you name it. It's become ingrained in me and I'm struggling to root it out. Communication and expression are considered by many to be and art form and a flood of vulgarities just don't come off as terribly artful. Profanity is prolific right down to the lowest common denominator on the social scale; willful participation among those with more respected social standing debases them.
If everyone who works in one groups swears around people who they deal with day to day, but are 'polite' to the others (higher levels of management, clients...). The swearing, and accepting of swearing becomes a subtle way of saying, that we are comfortable with each other, and when people get a long together, they usually work well together...
If that makes any fucking sense...
"I'll have a Guinness, no wait, make that a Coors Light" -Grad student I work with, who shall remain anonymous...
In Soviet Russia, vulgarities fire you!
Seriously, how is this news? I work for HP, and I've done nothing but swear with colleagues for the last 12 years. Not necessarily inside meetings, but sometimes definitely with customers on projects and whatnot.
I mean when you're in a data center and someone overwrites a production LUN to an Oracle Server because he took the wrong hardware path for his ignite restore, the customer won't say "Oh golly, that was rather unlucky, mate!" Shit no, we' be Fuck this and Fuck that. Or in sweden Jävla Faaaan! Hörrudu va'görru nu din dumma skit!. This is a completely normal thing if the shit hits the fan and the relationship is solid.
Most companies know this. Unless you're caught in an eternal re-run of Office Space.
I know people who got fired for profanity, as well. In fact, I fired one myself. But the context of the profanity was the problem and not the profanity.
In the case of the guy I fired, it was during a post-mortem review for a project. Probably 15 people in the room. He said, "I'd rather lick a dirty asshole than have to look at code." Five minutes after the meeting, the guy was fired. Although, I'd have fired him if he said, "I'd rather lick a dirty anus..."
When people create a hostile work environment through their words, they should be axed. But I don't think profanity itself is the issue.
The issue is that *a lot of times* profanity is used in conjunction with verbally creating a hostile work environment.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
In fact, when I hear someone swearing, the first thing that comes to mind is that they're some uneducated, undisciplined ignoramus who can't be bothered to think for themselves or respect the rights of others.
Then you're a self-important, haughty jackass who prejudges people, and I think I speak for many others when I say I'm glad I don't work with/for people such as yourself.
I've never heard a highly performing engineer or programmer swear.
Then you haven't worked in very many workplaces. I work with a number of very talented individuals, and we all swear freely when it seems appropriate.
For some reason, they get a lot more respect than the guy who goes off into a litany of profanity.
Ah, I see, you just don't understand the point of the article. Here, let me explain, since your vast sense of self-importance seems to have clouded your ability to comprehend: we're talking about occasional use of profanity to express frustration, etc. However, that does not, despite your apparent confusion, immediately translate to using "fuck" every other word. Nor does it translate to using profanity as a mechanism for dealing with interpersonal issues.
The way I look at it is that if you swear all the time, what do you say in those situations where you really need to let loose?
Feel the fear and do it anyway.
My office neighbor gets scary when he is having trouble figuring something out on his computer. He swears and bangs the table and it makes me scared. I don't think his behavior is helping anyone :-(
It's helping him. I'd also bet dollars to doughnuts that if he knew that it made you scared, he'd feel bad about it and he'd try to stifle it. He isn't doing it for any external effect.
Working through complicated technical crud just makes some people bang stuff in frustration sometimes - sometimes a lot depending on the person - but it's important to understand that, at least for many typical geeks I've known, it's an internal process thing, not any frustration with anyone else. At the end of the day, try asking "I heard you banging like hell on a problem - any luck?" and see what you get. The answer might very well put you at ease.
Profanity is the linguistic crutch of a fucking ignoramus.
Profanity is simply a communications tool used to convey emotion directly instead of relying upon the receiver to interpret the words in the appropriate context. They are analogous to smileys used in email and chat; they're an extra communications channel.
Profanity is not antisocial. The overuse of profanity is antisocial. One can use the word "fifteen" as many times as necessary without diminishing its utility. Fifteen will still equal 15, no matter how many times you say it. On the other hand, the value of the word "fuck" lies in its emotional content. Every time that word is used, that content gets diluted for both the sender and receiver. When overused, the word becomes meaningless.
Profanity is simply another linguistic tool, and not using all the tools at one's disposal to communicate concisely and precisely is foolish. However, some tools dull faster than others, and the waste of perfectly good profanity through overuse and misuse is naturally offensive.
You should still be professional. I did a brief stint in retail, and managed to end up in charge by virtue of everyone over me being fired. I was on my way out, so I didn't give a damn...If some customer got rude, I threw them out of the store.
But I never swore at them. It's not professional. Ask them politely to leave. Ask them firmly to leave. Call the cops. I never had any problems, but I'm a big guy, and most people didn't try to get in my face.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.