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I’d like to draw your attention to a rather short but poignant article on the wonderful Signal vs. Noise blog about profanity.

It’s fucking spot on.

The author asserts that one of the most useful places for profanity is at the workplace. I could not agree with her more.

Now, just as the author states, I too am a huge fan of foul language. Yes, you read that right. I don’t have any qualms about dropping an f-bomb or synonym for fecal matter at a moment’s notice. Sometimes, a silly “gosh darn it son of a beeswax” just won’t do. You really need that “fucking son of a bitch”.

My roommates in college and I always joked that if our lives there in the apartment were a movie, it would most definitely be rated R, on account of language alone. Whether it was during a game of foosball, darts, Tiger Woods ’02’03, or Apples to Apples or just watching the latest episode of 30 Minute Meals (“There she goes again with her fucking EVOO…”), we cussed so much it makes your run-of-the-mill scurvy sailors look like Harvard graduates.

So, it was with much delight to me when I realized that at my place of employment, profanity is not frowned upon. Now, we’re still careful around our business customers, but I’m telling ya, there’s no guarantee that you won’t walk around a corner and come in on the tail end of a super dirty conversation about how much you’d have to be paid to do any manner of unsavory things.

Also, since I work in an IT department, profanity pops up whenever there’s a problem in production, or a piece of software isn’t behaving properly, or, you’re just hashing out requirements with someone.

One of my former coworkers used to tell the story that two of our directors would sprinkle cuss words in to their conversations during interviews, just to see what the candidate’s reaction was. If they balked at it, and got offended, then that person may not fit in real well there. If they took that as a sign that cussing was okay, well, then that just means they can pick up on the vibe of things here without too much trouble, and aren’t afraid to follow suit.

I really feel like that when you are relaxed enough to cuss in front of your coworkers, it means that you (for the most part, at least) can be real with them. If you feel like you have to walk on eggshells every time you hold a conversation with them, then how can you ever really be at ease or not worry that you’re going to say something that’s going to piss them off?

I am by no means saying that profanity is the only way to have a decent work environment, or that without profanity nothing would get done, but, when you’re talking with adults, I do believe that profanity has its place.

Now, would I say something R-rate in front of my 81 year old grandmother?

Fuck that.

So, I’m curious. For anyone reading this, how do you view or use profanity? What about in your place of work? Let us know in the comments.

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