Cursing becoming more acceptable in offices
Jan 28, 2014, 5:08 PM
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If you let the occasional curse word slip at work, you might raise less eyebrows than before.
According to Today.com, some workplaces are becoming more relaxed when it comes to employees using profanity, with some not minding it at all.
“Wall Street is a hotbed of profanity,” says Dennis Gibb, a former Morgan Stanley trader and Bear Stearns junior partner. “You’ve got a lot of high-testosterone people with big egos making a lot of money. When you’ve just bought 100,000 shares of something, profanity is a pretty appropriate response.”
While vulgar language is becoming more culturally accepted, some experts said profanity can also be used as a sign of dominance.
Timothy Jay, a professor of psychology at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and an authority on swearing, has found that extroverted, Type-A personalities can be more inclined to use strong language at work.
“Some personality factors are associated with the motivation to use curse words, such as impulsivity and masculinity,” writes Jay in a theoretical paper. “These kinds of people have difficulty restraining their use of curse words; they use curse words to achieve personal states or effects (e.g., for stress reduction) and to affect others (e.g., for bullying.)”
Historically, foul words have been associated with male domination and usually indicated when a person is emotionally charged, which can happen in the workplace.
However, some feel that professionalism and profanity are fare from becoming bedfellows.
“Profanity triggers a physical reaction in me. I actually sometimes experience it as if I’d been slapped in the face,” admits Heath Davis Havlick, a media relations specialist at eQuest in San Ramon, Calif., who feels profanity is equally upsetting when it’s directed at her colleagues. “I feel like, oh, I have to be on my guard now. I need to choose my words carefully and not inflame the situation in any way.”
How do you feel about cursing in the workplace?
