Hell yes...unless you're dealing with the public. Of course, there are limits. Use profanity the way you use exclamation points in e-mails. Occasionally, and only to really drive home a point.

Having said that, there are a large number of jobs where you just can't get away with it very often: elementary school teachers, morticians, grocery store cashiers, etc.

About 5 years into a 20-year career in the Marines I stopped swearing. I realized that constant swearing sounded inarticulate. Additionally, by using four letter words as punctuation I could no longer use them for emphasis. On the rare occasions that I swear these days people know that I mean it.

Absolutely NOT! A "professional setting" means just that. You are not working on a dock or in construction, so tone it down! A little politeness and civility goes a long ways. It sets the tone for your co-workers, customers, vendors, etc.

"Do unto others"... Do not expect to be treated in a polite manner if you cannot control your own use of the English language!

I have never heard so much profanity at work until I moved to Seattle. I guess in the medical field the f bomb is a noun a verb and an adjetive in Washington. Looks and sounds pretty unprofessional and trashy. Take your f bombs to the bar where knowone cares and there is less chance of a child hereing you. I think the most disheartening thing is that I complained and now I am the problem. Funny how that works sailors.

Sorry for my typos but at least I didnt swear. bp

A peer of mine had a particularly frustrating moment, put his head in his hands and said "effity-eff-eff-eff!" One of his subordinates heard this and raised a stink with HR that he had created a hostile work environment. While she did not prevail in the end, his career path pretty well came to a screeching halt.

The transition from construction site to office setting has been like having my mouth washed out with soap. Data entry is more frustrating than digging post holes, but unlike construction, I can't beat my computer with a hammer, nor can I accuse it of coming from unwed parents or being a piece of digested food. So I save my swearing for at home, when my paltry pay check arrives in the mail.

http://getajobloser.wordpress.com

Just as every new relationship has a first kiss, every new relationship has the first swear word utterred within earshot of the new employee. It usually takes a few days to a few weeks, but one job I had (a non-profit working in education) it was months.

My rule of thumb is to be emotionally honest, but keep the swearing a notch less than your boss and the average co-worker, and NEVER where customers can hear you.

My opinion on the subject is that swearing is a release that is essential for those in high-stress environments such as the army, concentration camp service, cotton-picking, prison labor, birthing rooms, playground attendants, and the like. (It also helps a great deal to pass the time when you are scrubbing the marker-renderings of genatelia from the kiddy-park swings and benches.)

The quality and variety of swear-words, as with all other things, is often commensurate with experience, and reflected by the level of interest in one's pay stub.

I've always frowned on swearing at the office, yet ironically one of the most effective and respected bosses I've ever had swore like a madam in a whorehouse, naturally.

My profession is education. The amount of swearing, f-bombs, etc. I hear from the teenagers is appalling. I'm guilty as well, but long for the nostalgic day of gentlemen not swearing among women, and obscene language not being heard in public. Just to be clear, did I say I am guilty? But I don't like it, and have lost hope of changing the teens usage or desire to limit use of crass, obscene language.

We have become a nation of barnyard
language. What ever happened to civility?

If I owned a company I would never allow foul language at the workplace.

Get a grip people. Act civilized.

For those of us who feel they MUST occasionally swear, it's handy to swear in a language that most people around you are not likely to know. I find it satisfying to swear in Norwegian, which doesn't work terribly well in the Nordic-settled Northwest. But even an occasional Irish-brogued 'What an eejit!' is satisfying.
When I caught my kids swearing and thinking I couldn't hear, they got the lecture about using swear words judiciously and only in the right situation, otherwise they lose their power.

I don't swear and I teach my children not to swear. Having said that I have often worked in jobs where the culture of swearing was and is rampant. There is a reason why proffesionalism requies decorem in how we act, dress and even talk. Profanity is degrading. It is public evidence of a person's inability to use their language. Using profanity and vulgarity steals something of the pureness and innocence we are all born with. Why do we not want children and teenagers to swear? It is telling that society has become more and more accepting of these crude and degrading terms. Everyone who has commented that swearing is necessary for creating emphasis is lying to themselves. Using swear words for their shock effect is self defeating. They become common and one must turn to cruder and more vulgar terms to create the same effect thus lowering their professionalism and proving their inadequacy, igonorance and immaturity. How we speak, text and e-mail shows who we are on the inside. Nothing will come out of our mouths that we haven't thought of first. I hope that everyone who reads this will clean up their language so that we can be a better example to the rising generation. Thanks

With at least 171,476 words in the English language, it has always surprised me how people can find ways to use the F-Bomb every other word and not bother to use creative, descriptive and more intelligent sounding words to describe a situation. In the workplace, it should never be used as it is nothing less than disrespectful.

I'm an Atheist so swearing is not a sin like it is with most religous people. My senior manager is a very straight edged Mormon. He has a zero tolerance on swearing.Even "mild" swearing like Hell,Damn,Crap,Piss,Poop,Butt,etc. is strictly prohibited.When I'm asked "How's it going today?" I say "S.O.S" instead of "same ole $#^!".I taught some of our overseas employees American slang then later on in the day the senior manager asked one of them "How's it going today?" and he responded "Who gives a rat's @$$!" I guess that's why we have such a high turn-over rate. Anyone need a job?