Swearing at work

[Babysharkdoodoodood]

I'll preface this by saying that I'm not a prude and I can swear with the best of them, in the privacy of my own home or with friends.

However, I'm a PA at work. I have a couple of new managers and my God do they swear! It's an all male environment (I'm the only female in the SLT) It appears to be contagious as well as all day I hear 'Fuck this or Fucking he'll' etc.

My old boss was a real gent and only swore if he stubbed his toe for example.

I just want to say 'Can you not please?' It's getting louder and worse as well apart from the (female) big boss comes in.

How can I tell them to stop, without coming across as holier than thou?

Otherwise I might just snap and shout ' Will you stop fucking swearing all the time ?'Which kind of defeats the object.

Sweat jar?

Maybe broach it with the big boss about how unprofessional they sound and it’s not the image you’d expect from a X company

It's not a private company. It's one of the emergency services. And tbh no one cares what they do out of the public eye.

I think it’s pretty normal for people in that environment to swear a lot. But you can raise it with someone senior if it’s bothering you a lot.

I work in a similar environment and we do all swear a bit sometimes.

I do think the swear jar might be an idea though with e.g. the proceeds going to the air ambulance or something or on a smaller scale the person with the highest swear tally at the end of the week has to bring in cakes on a Friday type thing.

Won't eliminate it but might get people to rein it in a bit and if it is a charity collection at least something positive comes out of it.

I might try the swear jar but it will probably be laughed off.

It's just soooooo constant and unprofessional.

What about it bothers you?
I don’t really get the idea of it being ‘unprofessional’ amongst workmates - public facing times, yes, but I don’t really see how it makes much difference when it’s only themselves.

Very unprofessional IMO

Also - I just wouldn’t engage with a swear jar. It’s a daft idea.

Whether there's a lot of swearing or not is generally dictated by the overall culture of the office. I wouldn't challenge it, it is what it is. For better or worse, workplaces aren't as stuffy or formal as they used to be and I'm in the camp that things being "professional" comes down to whether you're competent, get the job done, treat people with respect. I don't think swearing is unprofessional in itself unless it's being directed at you aggressively. If someone says "get your fucking arse in here" I'd challenge it. If someone's walking around saying "where did I leave that fucking folder", who cares?

Swear jar won’t work because who carries coins these days? I certainly don’t and I wouldn’t be putting a note in there.

How can I tell them to stop, without coming across as holier than thou?

By asking them rather than telling them? It's up to you whether you raise it with them or not but you can't really control how it'll be perceived. Whether its worth the risk of coming across as holier than thou or not depends on how much it bothers you I suppose.

I’m nhs ….lots of swearing in my office …but never when public facing….we need to sound off

😂

You’ve no danger of stopping swearing in emergency services. We use fuck as punctuation, amd it’s often a stress relieving valve
Its only a word

How can I tell them to stop, without coming across as holier than thou?

You absolutely can’t. You can’t control how other people react to things and they will almost certainly think you are holier than thou for complaining about this. If you want to complain you have to be okay with that.

This!

You have zero chance of changing a swearing culture and you'll just get eye rolls if you try. Honestly don't swear yourself is as much as you can effect.