Cursing at Work: Let the F-Bombs Fly!
He got his start laying pipe for the Atlas Water and Sewer company. Eventually, he climbed the ranks, becoming responsible for a staff of 800 and annual revenue exceeding $120 million. His name is Victor Kipling. This is his weekly column.
So today the popular mantra mandates that we drink white tea and eat dark chocolate, while avoiding the evils of caffeine and nicotine at all costs. Supposedly, by doing so, we'll all be 'healthier, wealthier and wise.' We'll also become the Zen-like, unemotional zombies that most corporations and offices really want us to be. Paragons of political correctness, we'll just silently continue to suck it up, 'living lives of quiet desperation,' as Henry David Thoreau said.
As our daily frustrations continue to mount, we all too often end up with the unenviable - and equally destructive - choice, of whether to explode or implode. So while a few 'go postal,' others less dramatically simply get sour and sick, or just drop dead. And then there's most of us, not quite at these extremes, but needing a freeing of the spirit, a healthy laxative, if you will, for the soul.
And that, goddammit, is cursing! Aside from sex, drugs and possibly rock 'n roll, there's no better cathartic on the market. Better yet, it's free, legal, very individual and can provide an array of side benefits that can do wonders for your career.
Cursing is really a verbal shorthand that we use to express our feelings of anger when we're thwarted, checked or otherwise prevented from achieving a goal or expressing ourselves. Cursing helps us get through yet another day at the office, going from point 'a' to point 'b,' without a helluva lotta bullshit in between. It's a natural response, and has been used forever, cutting across all cultures and societies. Even the most prudish 'golly gee,' 'gee whiz' or other such terms, are nothing more than bastardizations of real, authentic curses that (OMG) one religion or another looked askance at.
Sure, you need very much to know your audience, and when in doubt the old silent, under your breath type of cursing is better than none at all. Generic cursing - or swearing - is also far safer than being so f'n stupid as to offend the innocent. For example, and beyond the obvious no-nos of singling out a racial or religious group for your public tirade, you also need to be alert to avoid insulting those with physical characteristics or other traits that you can't stand. You never know if one of your listeners (or someone within earshot) may have an obese mate, a handicapped child or a jail bird for a brother. No, this isn't at all about being politically correct, it's about saving your ass from unnecessarily making enemies, a session with the EEO bureaucrats, or worse. Like they say, it's really all about context.
Recently, the British Leadership and Organization Development Journal (stick with me, folks) conducted a study that found that "...frequent swearing can reinforce solidarity among staff and enable them to express their feelings". Not only is this right out of the military morale-building play book, but even The Donald, (in a Trump Blog), cited this study and fully agreed with the benefits that cursing provides. Prudently, he also advised that profanity should be kept to a minimum while in front of senior execs. or customers. Another benefit of cursing is that, when making a presentation, the use of a few strategically placed swear words, for emphasis, may well add just the right amount of spice needed to convince the audience of your sincerity and commitment.
As humans, we're blessed (and cursed) with the ability to speak, and what a damned shame it would be if we didn't use it to make ourselves feel a helluva lot better.
Victor Kipling
Reader Comments (6)
It's okay because I typed it at home.
The department that takes what my department produces and then finishes the product, put a person with no experience on their front line. You probably can deduct that that person screwed up an hours worth of my work in a matter of seconds. While still under the stress of the production requirements the lead of the finishing dept came to me with the redos and a story that I had no interest in hearing. I had work to do, and now, I had more because their lack of leadership. Well... I let it fly "Just put the tickets on the table" I did not need the story, I saw the ignorance unfolding when they put the untrained person into the mix. I then dropped the bomb, mostly thinking aloud and in my own office/workspace I said, "I about to flip a fucking lid" frustrated with an hour of production and materials down the drain, stress of being shorthanded I needed a cathartic release.
The lead got all pissy with me and went out of my office then told my manager to whom I made no apologies. I told him with the stress I was under, I needed a release and it was the way I deal with stress and always had. I did not curse at the person and if the person would not have waited for me to finish without running out the room on her self righteous brigade she might have understood why the rework was such a frustrating situation. That all said I am still quite upset. My F-bomb cost the company nothing their rework cost an hour of production time and materials and I am the bad guy. To top it off the woman is petty and put up a sign the next day "Attitude is Everything". So please anyone who reads this drop an F*Bomb for me, I am tired of threats of negative consequences for one of my freedoms as an American the freedom of speech. So Fuck It I'm done. No apologies.