Is it ok for a manager to swear at you?

[Letelegraphe]

I know everyone has off days, but I don't personally find it acceptable. He didn't swear at me specifically, but at the team. Over something trivial admin-wise, he said "Can you all just do this properly, JFC!'.
I was shocked, I am leaving soon anyway, I've never experienced that before. Would it be ok for us to swear at management? I doubt it.
I'm finding that they've got their senior management on their backs and constantly passing the pressure down to us, another reason I'm out.

You know the answer to this. It isn’t acceptable to swear at anyone and particularly in the workplace but it does sound as if your manager was particularly exasperated

He didn't acknowledge it or apologise either. The week after I joined the team he'd messaged everyone saying 'Sorry for being a miserable c* this week' which was concerning

This. In this scenario if the team aren’t pulling their weight and the manager is exasperated then it’s not the worst thing in the world to say.

Anyway, you’re leaving. Are you going to put in a complaint to HR if so? I personally think that’d be a petty thing to do. If it was directed at you personally then I’d complain to HR.

It’s not ok, but he didn’t swear “at” you, he made an exclamation. He didn’t call you a “fucking idiot” or similar.

I’d focus on the team doing your work properly and then he’d be less frustrated

In this case (drip feed), why didn’t you complain about his swearing then and there? Were you afraid of repercussions if you did so? Is he one of the reasons you’re leaving?

Depends on the situation and the relationship. I worked for 20 years for an insurance company and bad language was rife, male and female managers swore...but not at me. More a "oh fuck what's gone wrong now" type of way. I had some managers again mald and female who joking would call me dick etc.

Plus the use of "bad" language has changed and swearing is more accepted than it was. You only have to watch TV to see the change.

If you are that upset tell them and explain you don't like it. I worked with a Christian woman so didn't blasphem as it upset her

So there was a trivial (easy?) task you needed to do and not one person on the team bothered to do it correctly?

And you know that it was easy/nobody did it do you, you were there? And that still makes it ok to swear? Right..

I'll ensure I swear at him then today when he moves another meeting yet again last minute. He should do it properly after all. We'll see how that goes down.

I think I can see why the guy was so exasperated…….

Yeah, poor guy. He should just keep swearing at us, very professional of him.

Me too sigh

I should've picked up on it earlier but I thought I'd just look like a troublemaker and it would cause a difficult relationship with him. I'm leaving for a few reasons but there's always been something slightly uncomfortable about him.

So if you’re bothered tell him swearing isn’t acceptable or escalate to HR.

I don't trust he's someone who won't make things difficult for you if you challenge him in any way unfortunately.

Starting to understand his frustrations tbqhwy

Since you’re leaving, I’d just accept that it’s how he is and focus on making the rest of your time there as positive as you can and look forward to your next job.

Depends on choice of swear words. I can’t be doing with blasphemy. I don’t find other swear words terribly inappropriate at work though. And I do think it’s important to note the difference between swearing at someone rather than just irritatedly exclaiming in frustration.

I understand management is stressful and as I say he's clearly under constant pressure from the senior management, but I've never had it from any other manager in nearly 30 years.

I hope you're not leaving to get a job at a law firm!

Criticising a group of people openly (even in general terms) in an non-constructive way is not exactly the best way to lift morale and performance either.

Luckily not!

I'm just a bit annoyed about the double standards. If any of us swore at him for something he had or hadn't done, I just don't imagine it'd go down well

I've worked in several law firms and only in one have a witnessed a partner swearing at a junior team member.

He (the partner) was off work with an ulcer a few months later than subsequently retired.

I wouldn’t enjoy that but I’d let him off seeing as it wasn’t directed at anyone.