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 ;)

Comments

It is called open communication

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:It is called open communication

[cloricus]

One thing that I really cannot stand is people who self censor or are scared to swear when it is socially acceptable (they deleted two days of work, or dropped a log on their foot). If you are going to swear do it, don't cross out letters, don't imply that is what would be there (for example the way they are editing it out of songs now your brain fills it in anyway). If you are not adult enough to brush off those who are so immature that they get offended you need to go back to high school and toughen up a bit.

I'm still considering if it is wise to see if slashdot has a swear word filter. :P

Re:It is called open communication

[Das Modell]

What pisses the shit out of me is that telling someone to fuck off is considered rude and unacceptable, but offending someone without the use of swear words is totally a-ok. Someone once gravely insulted me without uttering one swear word, and in response I said "fuck you." Then she acted like I was completely out of line whereas she had done nothing wrong. WHAT THE FUCK?!

Re:It is called open communication

[h4rm0ny]

Like I f---ing care what you think.

I have tourettes, you fucking insensitive cunt!!!!

Re:It is called open communication

[Rallion]

I agree, the taboo on certain words is ridiculous. Once, during a short stint in a retail position, I had a customer go off on me. Crazy. Huge rant, including phrases like, "you probably can't read," "mental defective," and many others. (In case you're wondering, it ultimately turned out that she had misread a price label.) The crazy (well, craziest) thing is this: as I stood there, somewhat stunned and very much unsure of how to react, a coworker came up and said something like, "Hey, don't you think that was pretty disrespectful and rude?" She responded, "No! I kept my language clean!" I laughed a little.

Some people say that using 'bad' language is some kind of crutch. As I watch people, I see that it's more common for people use the avoidance of certain words as a justification for (sometimes intense) rudeness.

Re:It is called open communication

[h4rm0ny]

If I could say "fucking insensitive cunt" at school, I would be soooo happy...

I'll take a guess that you're american, seeing as at the schools here in the UK, it's only the word 'insensitive' that gets omitted. And as I understand it, the USA does not like the French due to opposition to the Iraq invasion, cheese-jealousy, etc. Hence 'freedom fries' and so forth. (Stick with me, I'm going somewhere with this). So if you wish to say fucking and cunt, you can justify it as resisting French oppression. You see both Fuck and Cunt are genuine English words with a long history and weren't always considered vulgar. This all changed with the Norman invasion of England, when the French speaking invaders turned everything upside down and the language of the court and nobility became French (the Lingua Franca, if you'll forgive me). Not only did the sycophantic nobility of England use French, but the aspiring well-to-do also put on airs and graces and adopted french. And the use of English words became looked down on and a sign that one was lower class. Indeed, the word vulgar is actually just Latin for common. The entire prejudice against these words is, essentially, a class thing.

As a country with a good solid founding in patriotism and Francophobia, I believe that you should embrace such words and I encourage you to boldy explain such to your tutors, denouncing them as French-loving sycophants if they disagree; and declare that all americans should be proud of their cunts and generous with their fucks. If you are criticised for use of either of these words, the correct response is not sorry, but "WHY DO YOU HATE CHAUCER?"

So good luck with the fucking and the cunt. I'm afraid I'm not much good on the insensitive, but I don't let that stop me.

Regards,
-H.

'bout ****ing time

[athdemo]

I mean, ****, why am I always being ****ing censored at work. We're all ****ing adults here, right? ****.

Re:Good for you?

[Bloke down the pub]

Next they will be saying that Porn is good for productivity

I work at a sperm bank, you insensitive clod!!!!

Actual news release

[peipas]

Here's the actual release from the source, rather than a Network World recap.

Fuck yes

[slayermet420]

It's about motherfucking time the real world caught up with the fucking military.

Yeah, well

[NickCatal]

Somehow I don't feel like this allows you to say 'This place is filled with fucking idiots' every 5 seconds

But at least I can think it

TFA misses the point.

[SatanicPuppy]

It's not about the profanity, it's about the freedom to express your opinion without a ton of self-censoring. If you're working in a situation where you're going to get fired for swearing in a meeting, regardless of how frustrated you are, that's going to affect your performance and it's going to add a lot of stress, because you're going to be forever worrying about what you say to whom.

I used to have a mostly-female chain of command, and it was more difficult. Had a boss who decided I was a morale problem because I was willing to say what the whole department was thinking. Got called into the HR director's office once because I snapped at a co-worker in her earshot; no profanity mind you, just frustration. Not to say that there's anything wrong with women, but you can't cut loose on a female in a corporate environment without repercussions.

In contrast I absolutely lost my shit in front of my current boss (who is a corporate VP) over a complete snafu that I'd seen coming, and warned all the responsible people about and planned against, and goddamn it if they didn't do the ONE THING, THE ONE GODDAMN THING I TOLD THEM TO NEVER DO, and he let me run down, slapped me on the back, and said, "Done is done, let's get it fixed" and we went on from there.

Just nice to be in a situation where you can express your feelings, and sometimes there is a lot of profanity-inducing anger there, and not have to worry about your job. I'm pretty low key; I can keep it bottled up if I have to, but it makes for a less pleasant environment.

Re:My favorite General Patton Quote

[vertinox]

When I want my men to remember something important, to really make it stick, I give it to them double dirty. It may not sound nice to some bunch of little old ladies at an afternoon tea party, but it helps my soldiers to remember. You can't run an army without profanity; and it has to be eloquent profanity. An army without profanity couldn't fight its way out of a piss-soaked paper bag. ... As for the types of comments I make, sometimes I just, By God, get carried away with my own eloquence. -General George Smith Patton, Jr.