Swearing on a Stack of Manuals
If this was really true, why isn’t my current workplace the Happiest Place in the Midwest?
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Swearing at work 'boosts team spirit, morale'
LONDON (AFP) - Regular swearing at work can help boost team spirit among staff, allowing them to express better their feelings as well as develop social relationships, according to a study by researchers. Yehuda Baruch, a professor of management at the University of East Anglia, and graduate Stuart Jenkins studied the use of profanity in the workplace and assessed its implications for managers.
The pair said swearing in front of senior staff or customers should be seriously discouraged or banned, but in other circumstances it helped foster solidarity among employees and express frustration, stress or other feelings.
"Employees use swearing on a continuous basis, but not necessarily in a negative, abusive manner," said Baruch, who works in the university's business school in Norwich.
Banning swear words and reprimanding staff might represent strong leadership, but could remove key links between staff and impact on morale and motivation, he said.
"Managers need to understand how their staff feel about swearing. The challenge is to master the 'art' of knowing when to turn a blind eye to communication that does not meet their own standards."
The study, "Swearing at work and permissive leadership culture: when anti-social becomes social and incivility is acceptable", is published in the latest issue of the Leadership and Organisational Development Journal.
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This is actually my second blog about the joys of cursing – but like all good topics, it’s worth a repeat. And if you don’t like it, well then &$#^ you.
I have to admit that I occasionally – okay, more than occasionally – have a potty mouth. It’s usually directed at other drivers on the road, especially those on cell phones or those who seem to think that red lights and stop signs don’t apply to them.
But the biggest target by far of my salty language skills has to be my computer monitor. It’s a gosh darn, freaking, son of a gun good thing that my monitor at work doesn’t have feelings – otherwise it would spend it’s day weeping.
I tend to take out my aggressions/frustrations at slow network connections, “blue screen of death” errors, program lockups, or other hardware/software/Internet issues. Sure, it’s not poor little Mr. Monitor’s fault that my keyboard keys are locked up or that my hard drive sounds more like a garbage disposal or that for some reason IT has blocked my access to my own files – but as they say, “guilty by association”. So take that, you &*(&%$$#ing piece of @($*.
Some day they’re going to invent a monitor that uses artificial intelligence to respond to your commands, just like the computers on Star Trek. I fear that day, because I have a bad feeling that my version of HAL 9000 will end up holding some mighty big grudges against me. I can hear it now: “Call me that again, mister, and I guaran-damn-tee that you’ll never see that spreadsheet again.”
Hmmm...I wonder if 17-inch flat panel displays like flowers?
* * * * * * *
Swearing at work 'boosts team spirit, morale'
LONDON (AFP) - Regular swearing at work can help boost team spirit among staff, allowing them to express better their feelings as well as develop social relationships, according to a study by researchers. Yehuda Baruch, a professor of management at the University of East Anglia, and graduate Stuart Jenkins studied the use of profanity in the workplace and assessed its implications for managers.
The pair said swearing in front of senior staff or customers should be seriously discouraged or banned, but in other circumstances it helped foster solidarity among employees and express frustration, stress or other feelings.
"Employees use swearing on a continuous basis, but not necessarily in a negative, abusive manner," said Baruch, who works in the university's business school in Norwich.
Banning swear words and reprimanding staff might represent strong leadership, but could remove key links between staff and impact on morale and motivation, he said.
"Managers need to understand how their staff feel about swearing. The challenge is to master the 'art' of knowing when to turn a blind eye to communication that does not meet their own standards."
The study, "Swearing at work and permissive leadership culture: when anti-social becomes social and incivility is acceptable", is published in the latest issue of the Leadership and Organisational Development Journal.
* * * * * * *
This is actually my second blog about the joys of cursing – but like all good topics, it’s worth a repeat. And if you don’t like it, well then &$#^ you.
I have to admit that I occasionally – okay, more than occasionally – have a potty mouth. It’s usually directed at other drivers on the road, especially those on cell phones or those who seem to think that red lights and stop signs don’t apply to them.
But the biggest target by far of my salty language skills has to be my computer monitor. It’s a gosh darn, freaking, son of a gun good thing that my monitor at work doesn’t have feelings – otherwise it would spend it’s day weeping.
I tend to take out my aggressions/frustrations at slow network connections, “blue screen of death” errors, program lockups, or other hardware/software/Internet issues. Sure, it’s not poor little Mr. Monitor’s fault that my keyboard keys are locked up or that my hard drive sounds more like a garbage disposal or that for some reason IT has blocked my access to my own files – but as they say, “guilty by association”. So take that, you &*(&%$$#ing piece of @($*.
Some day they’re going to invent a monitor that uses artificial intelligence to respond to your commands, just like the computers on Star Trek. I fear that day, because I have a bad feeling that my version of HAL 9000 will end up holding some mighty big grudges against me. I can hear it now: “Call me that again, mister, and I guaran-damn-tee that you’ll never see that spreadsheet again.”
Hmmm...I wonder if 17-inch flat panel displays like flowers?
posted by Tommy G at
9:17 AM
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