One day a group of us, including a female supervisor, were complaining about some required paperwork.
The supervisors agreed commenting several times, "yea, what the fuck is with that (the new paperwork?)?
For fear of creating a "hostile workplace" I would never use the F word at work.
Is there a double standard.
If it makes any difference, I work in a professional office.
I don’t know if it could be called a ‘double standard’ or not. I work in an office and I’ve never heard anyone there use language like that. Why some people lower themselves to that level is beyond me. It seems to me that to do so is a sign of low intelligence and I’m glad to hear you hold yourself higher than that. I don’t use such language in real life nor do I use it in any of my writing, including on this site. I never will either. I’m far from perfect and have bad habits same as everyone else, but I’m happy to say having to resort to that kind of language isn’t one of them. So Hasabrain2, stick with your morals.
If you're feeling bored during this Covid-19 epidemic I’d like to suggest
you take a peek at a story I collaborated with SueBrasil, a brilliant author.
It's about a mistake in judgment a lady makes concerning a friend, based
on the hurtful words of someone that only thinks of himself. Will that
conniving person succeed in ruining a beautiful friendship, or will she see
through his lies? It's gradually creeping up towards the 30,000 mark
and we’d love any votes or hearing whatever comments you may wish
to make. It is listed in my profile under ‘FAVOURITES’ as Apologize.
www.lushstories.com/stories/first-time/apologize.aspx It's a matter of context. Professional office settings I wouldn't expect it. However, I live in Las Vegas, Nevada and worked on The Strip. We were a progressive bunch and frequently used 'Fuck' amongst ourselves to express everything but the sexual act on occasion.
Kissing your lips while straddling your lap.
I have a professional role in a predominantly male environment. I never hear nor utter any Type of expletives in the workplace. I wouldn’t dare.
Socially is a little different, people who know me might let an F-bomb slip here and there as I would but the majority of the time most people in my social circle are generally respectful.
Writing is another thing where anything goes.
I'm wrestling with the use of expletives at work a bit these days. The corporate group that my employer is part of has a relatively young CFO, who I mostly like. He's certainly more on the ball and supportive of IT than his predecessor (as is the new CEO). I've been in some meetings he's convened involving IT teams from across the group. You'd expect a bit of salty language from us geeks when we're behind closed doors but he's the one spouting most of it. I'm just not used to hearing a high level corporate exec talk like that. Middle managers and lower level execs, sure, but not CEOs and CFOs. So I'm kind of in the position of liking the guy but not respecting him as much as maybe I did the previous CFO, who was a rather old school exec. I guess that, at 53, I'm still in the generation where senior corporate execs were seen as upstanding, straight-laced guys in smart suits. Wonder what the corporate culture around use of language is like at, say, Facebook or other fairly young tech companies. Maybe I'll find out depending on what my son (currently studying computer engineering in university) does with his degree.
I work in an academic environment now, so foul language is frowned upon. It would offend people, and they would be likely to say something (as they should).
Prior to this job I was in the corporate world, in a pretty loose, free-wheeling office. We worked a lot of hours, sometimes under great pressure, people got punchy, and let off steam in a lot of ways that would probably be seen as inappropriate these days. Lots of swaearing. No double standard, though, women swore as much as men, and were equally inappropriate.
I prefer the calm and respectful behavior of my current workkplace BY FAR.
I worked for forty years in a diagnostic microbiology laboratory where high levels of concentration were required for long periods of time, both in order to ensure accuracy and consistency of results and for the protection of the individual and their coworkers, especially as we were working daily with dangerous pathogens. What might appear surprising was the regular use of foul language in the laboratory by both sexes, often in a jocular manner between equals, but only rarely in a disrespectful way, and never when talking to the public. I have often wondered why this was so and have come to the conclusion that it was a way of relieving tension in a safe fashion.
I also do not see it as a double standard. It's all about reading the room and knowing who you are working with. There are some scenarios throughout my workday where no one will turn their heads if you drop a casual f-bomb, but if it was used every sentence it would be certainly stretching it.
It would generally be considered unprofessional in my work environment. In fact, if anyone on our staff dropped the 'fuck' word or similar in front of clients, at a presentation, negotiation, etc. they could be fired. We have a strict code of professional conduct.
Our employee handbook even states that swear words and other foul language is not acceptable and can result in dismissal.
So l don't cuss at the office, dammit.
I work in nursing administration at a university-affiliated teaching hospital. Very reserved environment, as far as expletives go.
That said...once in a while, they come out, usually when reading about something that went very wrong at one of the several affiliated institutions. Not outbursts, nothing dramatic or loud, usually just the word "fuck" used in place of a whole sentence, as in, "Hey, Jen, did you see that email from QI?" "Yah, the fuck?".
Want to spend some time wallowing in a Recommended Read? Pick one! Or two! Or seven!
I work in the UK as an Operations Manager ( EX Bank Officer) for a firm of Electrical Contractors. Industrial language is used on building sites in most cases without exception. In my office the F word is not used that often but perhaps under my breath at most.
I think it all depends on the environment you work in .
Most of these replies concern the use of vulgar language. Certainly what is acceptable for longshoreman is not acceptable for banker.
My issues was the double standard. The female supervisor (albeit in a casual setting) used that F word, but as a guy I never.
Here is another double standard: A few women were discussing the UPS delivery. She remarked that one of the delivery guys was hot.
Yet, as I guy the woman in the office would be all over me (in a bad way) if said the floral delivery girl was hot (occasionally, spouses/significant other will send their loved one flowers at work).
My career has been made in a sort of weird intersection of blue and white collar roles. Currently, I’m in regulatory enforcement (safety, permitting, etc) so just picture people in a formal office setting but with steel-toed boots, dirty hands, and equal parts cubical-time and shop-time.
I hear cursing CONSTANTLY. I’m getting better about not swearing as much as I used to cuss but there is practically no filter on anything (within reason - e.g. slurs wouldn’t be tolerated of course). I would describe it like this:
“Hey, could you hand me that hard hat?”
-no response-
“Hey, that hard hat, could you hand it to me?”
-still doesn’t hear-
“Hey! The hard hat!”
-crickets-
“Hey! Fuck! Hand me that fucking hard hat!”
-wakes up from day dream and hands over the hard hat-
Something about cursing just seems to wake people up to pay attention, like whatever follows the word ‘fuck’ or ‘damn’ must be important.
I always try to limit my level of cursing to the situation and audience at hand but even if I curbed my swearing down to zero I would still hear it all the time. It’s basically just a part of the industry, like it or not. Engineering is also a mostly male-dominated field but fortunately I’m seeing more and more women come into the fold as time goes on. And yes, it seems the gals curse pretty much the same amount as the guys.
I can’t think of a good tagline so this will have to do. Suggest a better one for me?
In any white collar job I've ever held, casual or especially angry cursing would be a career derailer...let alone a stopper. I've witnessed women and men dropping variants of the f-bomb over the last 30 years... It hasn't worked out very well for those people.
I won't even allow myself to drop my guard at office parties or events organized outside the office. You're still around those who influence your career, aren't you?
The same GQP demanding we move on from January 6th, 2021 is still doing audits of the November 3rd, 2020 election.
