What the &#@!? Watch your language at work

Golden is not seeing a greater number complaints regarding the use of foul language at work but, she says, “it may be it’s increasing and people’s tolerance is also increasing.” She notes that certain environments – like trading desks, “where you have to put on hip boots to wade through the testosterone,” or in traditionally male jobs, such as construction, that women are now trying to enter – may be more ripe for these incidents than others.

Golden believes that often the easiest way to address this type of workplace issue – if the language is simply offensive but no illegal act is being committed – is for the offended employee to leave, find a more hospitable environment “and put it behind you.”

James V. O’Connor, a commentator in the film and also the author of “Cuss Control,” believes that increased toleration is the cause of more bad language used in the workplace. And, what’s worse, the offensiveness is escalating. “’Damn’ and “hell’ are pretty weak these days,” he says. “ ‘F***ing’ is still a big one, and that’s why the documentary focused on this one word, because the other words are getting pretty tame.”

O’Connor also cites the confusion in many people’s minds between First Amendment rights and “civility, manners and courtesy.” “You have a right to belch, but social convention says you shouldn’t do it,” he said. “To say you have the freedom to do it is mixing up freedom with manners and respect for others.” But he doesn’t let employers off the hook, either. “A lot of companies that have policies write them up and pass them around and they get stuck in a drawer,” O’Conner says. “No one enforces them.”

For Jaskolski, it comes down to professionalism. “What has disturbed me is we are so bent on professional dress and how people look,” he says. “We’re so concerned about the visual but not concerned about the auditory.” To do his part to help uncondition people from their bad language, Jaskolski sells a “language in the workplace” policy to employers, and which he describes at his web site www.workdayinsight.com.

Jaskolski believes that, when it comes to eradicating foul language in the workplace, it’s best to nip it in the bud. Many employers, he says, never addressed the issue in the beginning. At the early stage, it’s like two people on their best behavior when starting to date. But, employees begin to feel a lot more at ease with looser speech after their probation period ends and they feel their jobs are more or less guaranteed.

Jaskolski’s advice is for managers to call meeting stating a new no-tolerance policy, and request that employees simply ask the offending individual to cease speaking that way. It helps if there are consequences to non-compliance, such as the loss of one’s job, he says.

Not all requests to cease foul language are met with hostility, Jaskolski points out. “I’ve had to point it out to students, and they thanked me,” he says. “They didn’t realize that’s how they talked.”

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