Swearing at Work is Bleeping Good For You 421
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 ;)
It is called open communication (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:5, Funny)
That's "impedes," d---head.
Re:It is called open communication (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm still considering if it is wise to see if slashdot has a swear word filter.
Re:It is called open communication (Score:5, Funny)
Like I f---ing care what you think.
Re:It is called open communication (Score:5, Funny)
I have tourettes, you fucking insensitive cunt!!!!
Re:It is called open communication (Score:5, Informative)
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.
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You may dislike someone who disagrees with you.
You will hate someone who disagrees with you who you know is right.
Re:It is called open communication (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't get offended by people cursing in professional settings. It simply lowers my opinion of them. If you aren't adult enough to control yourself then perhaps *you* should go back to high school and finish maturing.
As for cursing in the workplace, I think it hurts the atmosphere. It may make the guy who just got off the phone with a dumb customer feel better to vent, but the dozen people who had to listen to his vehemence have all just had their days worsened a bit and everyone is a bit more on edge. We're human; harsh words and conflict make us feel bad. It's a simple formula. There is not much we can do about that.
That being said, people experiencing bad things together often bond together. I think that is the effect the study is showing.
I prefer having nice quiet, productive days much more than having my annoying primate instincts triggered by making me feel bad so I'll bond with people that aren't my friends.
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That said, my dad taught me to swear during home renovations. "Fuckbuggerdamnpoo" was my favourite of all ti
As my pappy says... (Score:5, Funny)
Profanity is the linguistic crutch of a fucking ignoramus.
Damn right!
Re:As my pappy says... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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And it can also be misused and overused. Just think of the words "nine" and "eleven".
The difference is, 9/11 attaches an emotional impact to meaningless numbers, while overuse of the word "fuck" removes the emotional impact from a word.
But what does any of this have to do with it being antisocial or not? Seems to me, if it generally has a negative impact, and you reduce the emotional impact, that's a socially good t
Re:It is called open communication (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:It is called open communication (Score:5, Interesting)
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree wholeheartedly. Profanity is a way for the speaker to let off steam. There is no semantic content to "fuck" when used as an expletive; it is just emphatic.
I used to work in tech support (for Apple, during the switch to PPC--not a fun time for that company), and the rule was that if the customer swore, we were allowed to terminate the call. I always hated that, because most reps just used that as an excuse to get rid of annoying customer service problems. But the thing is that if you disconnect someone while they're venting, they are just going to get angrier and call back. It makes the problem worse.
After noticing this trend, I stopped disconnecting customers who were screaming. As long as they weren't personally abusive to me (they almost never were--they were angry at the computer, angry at the company, angry at themselves for not backing up, angry at life, angry at a really shitty day--almost never were they angry at the person on the other end of the line), I let them just go. Just let them get it all out. I took notes whenever something emerged that was actually useful information, but mostly they just wanted to vent. And who doesn't???
I found that if you let people do this for about 2 minutes, and let them know that you empathized, as a fellow human being, with what they were going through, they would calm down and just be the easiest people to deal with all day. They felt relaxed. They felt like someone who could help them actually listened to them. They were also incredibly polite after that because they knew that the person listening had done them the human kindness of listening, when most people would have just hung up, and that they could not really be angry at them.
Profanity is very rarely about the listener; it's about the speaker. Sure, we could all walk around quantifying and qualifying our exact feelings in measured, calculated, meaningful lexical choices, but when we want to use profanity is when the idea is not really worth encoding, but we feel a need to express the emotion nonetheless. This is profanity's role in the English language, and most other languages have analogues.
People who are offended by profanity are weak, small, scheming people, IMO. They don't want to be around anyone who expresses their feelings, because feelings and human interaction embarrass them. As a general rule, I don't trust people who do not swear. They are obviously controlling their output, hiding their feelings. What else are they hiding? When I think back on the people who have been loyal coworkers who treated people with respect and fairness, they are the swearers. I have never been backstabbed by a swearer. It's always, in my experience, the people who don't. Swearing in front of someone is saying "I consider you close enough to expose this part of me." Refraining from doing so says, "You and I are wholly unrelated. You will act upon the information I impart." Granted, it's not like non-swearers are bad people. It's just that I am much more careful in dealing with them.
(Full disclosure: I swear like a motherfucker, so I may be a bit biased.)
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I think that's just you and your friends - I've never come across (fnarr) any of those phrases except Turd Burgerler used as slang for someone of the non-hetro persuasion.
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FUBAR
Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition. I think this is a phrase that originated in the military during WWII (The Great Patriotic War, to the Soviets). SNAFU
Situation Normal, All Fucked Up. I think this one originated in the military around the time of the Korean War or Vietnam.
Re:It is called FUBAR (Score:4, Funny)
BOHICA
Bend Over Here It Comes Again
Re:It is called FUBAR (Score:4, Interesting)
Agreed, with one modification...
My grandfather served in the army, and relayed those same phrases to us, with "fouled" in place of "fucked". Kept everyone out of trouble if the CO's wife was around. His is actually my preferred version, as I can repeat it in polite company..
....but there are times where nothing fits but "WTF?!?"
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'bout ****ing time (Score:5, Funny)
University of East Anglia (UES) (Score:2, Informative)
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It actually is:
http://www.uea.ac.uk/
But better to miss the key, than sending a whole university to Abu Dhabi (UAE [wikipedia.org]).
I have to go back to my flipping work....
FUCK YEAH! (Score:2)
Actual news release (Score:5, Informative)
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Farscape and Galactica are great for this (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, it does have the downside of my coworkers looking at me like I'm insane, but then that really shouldn't come as news to anyone. If they haven't figured out that I'm magra-fahrbot by now, well, I can't be blamed.
Pah, noob (Score:5, Funny)
Cheers,
Ian
Re:Pah, noob (Score:5, Funny)
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Fuck yes (Score:5, Funny)
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Way to go dumbass. Now we have to sleep in the office, and if they drill me one more time on workstation disassembly-reassembly, I swear I'm gonna bring down the entire network.
Re:My favorite General Patton Quote (Score:5, Insightful)
My office neighbor... (Score:3, Interesting)
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You think? (Score:2)
Oh fuck off!
Call me sad but.. (Score:4, Interesting)
Personally I'd find it stress inducing if I was surrounded by people swearing non stop all day. It has it's place and I'm happy with that but I don't want to hear it non stop, it demeans the person talking like that.
That said, I was sort of impressed by the moron chav who lived in the flat below mine once who managed a 16 word sentence which was all f**k or varients apart from 4 words and it made sense.
Re:Call me sad but.. (Score:4, Insightful)
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You say it louder.
Yeah, well (Score:5, Funny)
But at least I can think it
maybe initially (Score:4, Insightful)
I think it is more about cohesion (Score:3, Insightful)
If that makes any fucking sense...
super bowl (Score:5, Funny)
Long time coming (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
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A nice superficial analysis - but as a counterpoint, I offer the US military.
dude... (Score:2)
In other news: breathing makes you live.
Don't overdo it. (Score:2)
I do believe it can be cathartic. But from personal experience once swearing gets abused, let's say when under stress, it also seems to aggravate the frustration. It's like stewing in anger.
And it's too easy for this to be turned into a habit. The last t
Better at work... (Score:2)
Brits have known this for ages (Score:5, Informative)
I grew up in Britain but now work in America. When I figure I can get away with it, and when the situation calls for it, I sometimes let loose with a well-timed swear word. I can sense that my fully american colleagues are always a little bit shocked, however I also feel it REALLY gets their attention, and thus can be a good thing.
For example, I told my (then current) boss that the interference from her (then) boss had gotten completely out of hand. The way I phrased it was "I have nearly gotten to the point of just telling him to fuck off". That would be such a flagrant breach of protocol that I'm glad I didn't, however just /mentioning/ the word made the situation crystal clear (mention as oppose to use - it was hypothetical swearing).
In fact, work is almost the last frontier where swearing is still effective, and so it's the only place where's really still worthwhile. I suppose if I swore at customer support from some vendor it would also have an effect, but I have too much sympathy for what those people put up with.
Out on the street, or on public transport, however, swearing is just like noise on the signal. Any ten-year old kid can be overheard using "fuck, shit, motherfucker". One of the few words that still has some kick to it, for some reason, is "cunt". I think the most memorable usage was still in the Bridget Jones movie...
Idiotic and out of touch with the real world (Score:3, Interesting)
It's not a prohibition on swearing that's keeping people from expressing themselves at work; it's restrictive environments created by management where one doesn't express oneself out of fear of retaliation.
I enjoy swearing when it's the right time, but work is not the place for it, and swearing is not a workplace communication enhancer; it's a tool of anger, frustration and an inability to express one's full feeling on a subject.
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OTOH, I swear at my home computer frequently.
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There is no right or wrong place to swear, but there IS a right or wrong time. Ever been angry or frustrated or unable to express a feeling on a subject, at work?
Working in the Navy (Score:5, Interesting)
And this was on a submarine. No women. Limited cases of sexual harassment.
Fuck that. You could always tell the fools in the Chief's quarters (think mid level management) by how well they hewed to these rules. If they smoked, drank and swore, they were usually good guys. If they were teetotaling pricks, then they were not to be trusted. This, more than almost any other metric, helped to determine good bosses from bad for us.
Re:Working in the Navy (Score:5, Funny)
No women? Limited sexual harassment? As opposed to none? I suppose all the jokes about you Navy guys are true to some extent...
Re:Working in the Navy (Score:4, Funny)
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[Comic operetta music]
Stewie: "I'm the greatest captain of the Queen's navy."
Sailors: "And your record will stand as proof."
Stewie: "Be it galley or a freighter, I'm an expert navigator."
Sailors: "And you're also a world-class poof."
Stewie: "My manner, quite effete, is mistaken on the street. For a sailor who can pirouette on cue. Well, despite your point of view, I can thrill a girl or two... But I'd rather get it on with you."
Seemed to work... (Score:2)
rj
Swearing (Score:2)
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I must be sheltered (Score:2)
Military Tradition (Score:2)
Sounds very much like camaraderie and morale; old military standbys. Perhaps there is a good reason swearing seems to be ingrained in military culture.
fat bastard alert ... (Score:2)
You mean now the workers can swear back at the managers, as distinct to being swore at. If so then why is it that when I called my 'team leader' a fat bastard, he got me fired. It was like this, I was on the call desk and he happened to cross my field of vision and I sub-vocalized the expletive. Those headphone mikes are so soo sensitive and besides he shouldn't have been listening in on
Red Storm Rising (Score:2)
Another thing (Score:5, Funny)
Furthermore, I always thought of punching a client in the face, or nuts, and I think being allowed to do that would definitely help my stress, and the solidarity among me and the rest of the employees.
Is this the END of the fscking PC syndrome? (Score:2)
Why yes, I do feel more free for having said that.... oh, btw, that coonass in accounting puts bourbon in his coffee.
Bud Light figured this out long ago (Score:4, Funny)
Actually ... (Score:4, Funny)
JWZ on "professionalism" in the corporate environm (Score:4, Interesting)
His response has remained with me all these years:
Re:Good for you? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Good for you? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Good for you? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Good for you? (Score:5, Funny)
Next they'll be saying that sex on your desk is good for productivity. And I'll keep on saying it...
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Nope. (Score:2)
Throwing down on your customers is never good. That's your job so when you start doing profanity, you're screwing up your job performance, and you deserve to be fired...unless you're in a job where the customers expect profanity (comedian, whore, phone support).
Being able to walk into the kitchen, or the breakroom, or whatever, and say, "Goddamn motherfucking asspirates sh
Eh. (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:odd...I know people who got fired.. (Score:4, Interesting)
The point of the article is that being in an environment that allows greater freedom of expression is good for you. Not that swearing when it's inappropriate or against policy is good for you.
Though I've sworn at a client that was late in paying me $3000. But I was essentially in a situation where I had to demonstrate the fact that I owned (pwnd, rather) all their data before they paid me. So I felt rather justified.
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The only sane way to "make progress" is to work as an independent.
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- Me
TFA misses the point. (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Uh no. (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
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Getting sued into oblivion because someone on your staff was offended by something someone else said, and you did nothing to protect them.
Re:odd...I know people who got fired.. (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
It depends on HOW they use profanity... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Well, duh. (Score:4, Insightful)
It's not about rewards. (Score:5, Interesting)
Profanity doesn't make for a bad environment; bad environments make for profanity. And a bad environment that stifles profanity is a terrible environment.
HEY! (Score:2)
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Depends on what part of the country. (Score:3, Interesting)
As opposed to the South. Now, don't get me wrong, there is a lot of racism in the South, but the thing is, the fact that we know it's there makes it possible t
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People are happier at work if they can act like themselves.
And what if swearing is not themselves?
This benefits and reinforces solidarity only among those who are willing to join in with the swearing. I can't imagine it does much for those who get uncomfortable around constant cursing. So really a policy of "swearing's ok" is every bit as oppressive as one that says "not ok". Either way you're cramping someone's style. Which do you think is the lesser of the two evils?
Personally I'd go with the option that's least likely to offend those in and visiting the
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On the other hand, I suspect that a lot of people would be really mad if their ability to say words they're not supposed to say suddenly ceased to exist.
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And here's how they learn.
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Can I watch? I've always wanted to know how @#$% is pronounced.
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I think it would make women uncomfortable. Cursing is often associated with anger, and anger with violence. Women are not fond of hanging around cursing, angry, violent men--even if it's not an accurate portrayal of what the man is thinking. What matters is the outward expression.
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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 num