Profanity in the Workplace and Its Impact on Your Brand and Culture

Notwithstanding the stereotypes of Wall Street and the army, profanity use is usually not rampant in larger corporations, where people are more vigilant about following legal and social norms and daily interactions are more likely to include unfamiliar people. If used in larger companies, it is usually within a small group and in closed door meetings. However, in smaller companies, where everybody knows everybody else and they work together all day, the company’s culture can unwittingly give implicit permission for employees to freely use profanity in their routine interactions. Is that good or bad? What is the value and cost of such freedom? How does it impact your brand and your culture?

Should you start or stop such a practice? If so, how?

Advocates of profanity in the workplace are likely to quickly qualify their advocacy with restrictions: it should never be addressed at a specific individual or group; slurs directed at a specific gender, race, ethnicity, etc. are not allowed; it is never to be used in vain or in anger, but merely as colorful speech; it is never to be used in the presence of customers or clients; and if someone objects, those wishes must be respected.

The argument in favor of profanity use is that it provides a broader bandwidth of expression, allowing for people to communicate their passion with greater color. As an emotive form of language, people can more truly express their position instead of beating around the bush. Swearing, paired with humor, can relieve stress and release pressure from a tense situation. Mirroring one’s professional life closer to one’s social life creates a more relaxed atmosphere and increases camaraderie in the work place. You do not have to be on constant guard on what you might say and whom you might offend.

If you accept that norm, what is the harm? So, the advocates argue.

Profanity can also be used as a weapon, a display of testosterone, a means of achieving personal dominance, or a form of bullying. What language of profanity is acceptable and when does somebody cross the line? Are graphic descriptions, verbal or pictorial, acceptable? Is each person left to decide what is acceptable based on their judgment of their colleagues’ comfort? Or does one have license to push the envelope until such time as somebody objects?

At one company I ran – a company that had started out as a startup but had grown to 250 employees – I found on my first visit to a distant facility that most of the offices proudly displayed calendars with photos of nude women. Interestingly enough, the offices without said calendars were occupied by women. Finding this practice very foreign to my own background in corporate America, I asked the women at the facility and found that they were uncomfortable with it, but did not feel that they could speak up. Clearly, if the situation gets to a point where one or more employees claim that it creates a hostile work environment, management would have to step in and put an end to such a practice. Should management wait till such objection is raised? Is there exposure to the company even if nobody objects?

If use of profanity is acceptable in the workplace, why is it restricted in interactions with clients?

Presumably, the premise is this: while you are willing to troop around the house in your pajamas, you are likely to adorn a robe when you go out to get the morning newspaper. But, in this age of social media and instant communication, does the outside world not see you trooping around your house in your pajamas? Do we really think that we can create a different culture inside and a different brand outside? Should brand and culture not be aligned?

What role does leadership have in either fostering or inhibiting the use of profanity in the workplace?

Is the practice not an element of the culture that leadership creates within the organization – unwittingly or intentionally? Should leadership take an intentional position, or should they let the organization find a level of de facto comfort? We believe it is important that leadership takes a clear position on the use of profanity in the workplace, communicates that to the organization and practices it at all levels. Our advice is not to suggest our preferred position, but that you take an intentional position on this matter.

Food for Thought is our way of sharing interesting concepts on corporate leadership and management with others who might find it useful. The thoughts offered are intended to be controversial and thought provoking. They are intended to help our readers intentionally realize their potential, what we call Potentionality.