I distinctly remember the day that I experimented with swear words. I'd heard my dad use them frequently. I'd heard my grandfather use them frequently. I figured that they were part of the package if I was ever going to be a man. My sister had other ideas, and after a long conversation with my dad, I swore off swear words.
That's probably a good thing, too. Take a look at this article:
http://www.nbc5i.com/news/14352081/detail.html?rss=dfw&psp=nationalnews
It seems that woman has been cited for shouting profanities in her own home. I don't know when foul language became illegal, but I'm sure glad that my dad saved me from a life of crime. Of course, this article does raise some interesting questions. For instance, the woman said that she was dealing with an overflowing toilet. Is it possible that her language was simply describing the situation in layman's terms? So, when she goes to court is she going to have to prove that the bathroom really was full of $#i+?
Honestly, it's surprising to me that this incident didn't foster solidarity between the woman and her neighbor. In fact, it did just the opposite. It created a situation where her neighbor called the police on her (which is odd anyway since her neighbor is a police officer), and this will likely be a rift between the two for years to come. The reason that this surprises me, though, is because it's in direct contradiction with a recent study on swearing at work:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=071017125814.w6whem5y&show_article=1
It seems from this study that we should allow our employees to use foul language at work because they are going to do it, it helps the build a team, and everyone agrees that the CEO is a &*$#$% anyway. I guess the relationship between employees and neighbors is a little different, though, since outside the organization this activity really turned out to be negative for the woman from Scranton. What might have helped is if she had brought the neighbor over and made him stand in the pile of $#i+ that was coming out of the toilet. Then it would have been just like two employees at many organizations across America, if not literally at least figuratively, and they probably would have cursed together.
I'm still a little old school, though, and I have a hard time believing that foul language at work will really make a difference. The proof is in the pudding, though, and you can't deny the results. Just watch this video of the potential for leveraging foul language in the workplace. It really shows a team the pulls together and works for a common goal with a liberal sprinkling of words that your kids can't hear (the language is bleeped, so don't worry about your kids overhearing something that might scar them for life):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJJL5dxgVaM
If you don't do anything else, you have to watch the video. It's absolutely hilarious.
1 comment:
aren't you glad your sister had other ideas and you had that talk with dad? Cursing definitely doesn't make you a man, and you weren't good at it anyway! LOL
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