have you ever been given a warning or suspension for using profane language at work?
profane language is the word 'fuck'.
this is not yelling 'fuck' at the top of your lungs, but more like 'aah, fuck', meaning why do things have to be this complicated? or, why didn't coworker X did his job as he was supposed to? Why is this documentation not in order?
Have you ever been fired over this? reprimanded at work?
I use 'fuck' a lot, not to intimidate anyone, but each time something bothers me, I could as well use 'come on!!' but 'fuck' comes to me more naturally.
If I get a written warning, is this a reason good enough to start looking for employment elsewhere?
To those of you not in America. Is it different where you are?
If someone doesn’t understand the difference between swearing at and swearing around, that’s a shitty environment. If I say, “that was a shitty fucking outage” I am using some filler for emphasis so my mouth can catch up to my brain. If I say “you’re a fucking asshole” or “don’t be such a bitch” or “that’s fucking sexy” I am not being professional and I deserve some training on how to not be an ignorant walnut. Even with swearing around, I do think it’s smart to limit yourself to damnation, defecation, and simple fornication rather than gendered swears. There are also some places it’s not wise to swear around, such as client-facing roles because many of the people you will see don’t understand that swearing around is not swearing at.
I once lost a job after the onsite interview. I wait to swear until I I hear them swear. Apparently my use of “fuck” meant I was going to blow up and be a terrible person to my peers. Two years later I started running a department doing the thing I was interviewing for and my staff tends to be fiercely loyal. I’d argue my swearing speaks for itself and have shaped my professional attitude toward swearing around around this experience.
I work in tech and I’m quick to police my language if necessary. I’m also concerned about relative comfort (eg I try really hard not to blaspheme around some Christian peers). I do not swear at people. I do not work in a super corporate environment. YMMV.
I like study (you can find the full article online) and I think there’s been more research down this path in the years since.