Re: OT: Profanity in the workplace

[Tony Chung <tonyc -at- tonychung -dot- ca>]

People, I'm surprised Eric hasn't encouraged us to move this
conversation into chat, because it's moving away from professionalism
in the workplace into debating personal beliefs.

Staying on the topic of professionalism, personally I am shocked at
the language used by most of the engineers I work with, even managers
and directors. I can see how we could throw around a few choice words
at lunch or while hanging out in my cube, but when someone drops a
casual f-bomb in the middle of a meeting I feel sorry at the lack of
respect shown to the team. I'm not squeamish about language, and use
it myself while fighting with various operating systems and
applications.

However, I remember in my previous jobs from the high school level on
up, foul language on the job sites would be just cause for dismissal.
Does this mean well-educated people who work for high-tech companies
at higher salaries are allowed to forget their language faculties in
favour of a gutter-all response?

The three points I get from this discussion:
1) Professionals should show respect for their colleagues and not use
language they wouldn't use in the presence of customers (or children).
2) Professionals should resist the urge to impose their moral
standards on their peers and management, and instead look for
opportunities to bridge the discussion based on their relationship.
3) Sometimes you will feel the need to speak up. Choose your moments wisely.

Cheers,

-- 
Tony Chung: Creative Communications
Cell: +1-604-710-5164
Email: tonyc -at- tonychung -dot- ca * Web: http://tonychung.ca
Skype: tonychung.ca * GTalk/MSN: tonychung -dot- ca -at- gmail -dot- com
Twitter: @techcom * Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tonychung.ca
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