Is profanity necessary in order

Tim McElwain

to communicate?

<ul><li><a href="http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dFrrBYgqdOCdmqycCicOiyCicNyiwy?format=standard">Should bosses drop F-bombs?</a>

It's no longer unheard of for leaders to use language that would strip paint in a bid to demonstrate their passion and commitment. Former Yahoo! and Autodesk chief Carol Bartz was notoriously profane in her internal communications, and younger-generation CEOs are using similarly salty language in daily interactions with workers. "Companies increasingly prefer authentic leaders," says Jeffrey Cohn, an executive assessment expert. "Using colorful language can play to your advantage -- as long as you also demonstrate empathy and good business judgment." <a href="http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dFrrBYgqdOCdmqycCicOiyCicNyiwy?format=standard">[u][color=#0000ff]The Wall Street Journal[/color][/u]</a><span style="color:#666666"> (5/24)</span> <img src="http://cdn.smartbrief.com/images/briefs2/common/sm_share.gif" width="34" height="14" alt="Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet." /> <a href="http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dFrrBYgqdOCdmqzxCicOiyCicNXIUY"><img src="http://cdn.smartbrief.com/images/briefs2/common/linkedin.gif" width="14" height="14" alt="Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet.

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Mac_7

inability to communicate

To me it doesn't "demonstrate their passion and commitment."  It just shows someone who is unable to communicate very well and lack of higher learning.  I'm surprised it would be tolerated in positions of authority.  They would quickly lose credibility with me.

Paul48

If

You need that to be  "authentic", or to show passion and commitment, you are not a leader...PERIOD. Show your passion and commitment with a willingness to get "down and dirty". Your workers will know you're authentic, passionate, and commited.Raise the bar, and expectations through your own actions.

bill_105

Can't resist

What did **** cheney say to Pat Leahy on the U.S. Seanate floor?

And those wonderful Nixon transcripts?

Now there is authority and leadership

Comedy writers don't need to work so hard

nicholas bonham-carter

Good communication

Spicy language, like spices used in cooking, must be used carefully. Too much spice will overload the listeners.

All spiciness should be served up with a dose of humor, to offset the bite!

The real problem is faulty communication , and no amount of spicy language will really cover the rotten meat of that.

I hope I haven't mixed to many metaphors up!--NBC

Paul Fredricks_3

I agree

And, of course, words that today are considered "spicy" or bad  will, in the future, just be considered normal. Bad words are just the opinion of the individual, and have more to do with the way they are said and the way they are taken by others. I think the only place that a bad word list existed was in George Carlin's monologue, and not all of those are really considered "bad" anymore.

Jean-David Beyer

Use of "bad words"

Some people use bad words unnecessarily. I had an very smart highly educated uncle. He had a Ph.D. degree (in geomorphology, if I remember correctly) and was an expert in many fields: history, geography, electronics, physics, meteorology, .... However, he was in the U.S.Army in WW-II and swore a lot. In my view there are three kinds of swear words: bathroom, bedroom, and religious. My uncle used mostly religious ones. I think he swore mostly to show he was a grown-up, and a person to be respected. So wherever a less vulgar person might utter "um", he used "goddamned".



I seldom swear anymore. Because at some point I realized that to do any good, a swear word had to be so shocking that it shocked the person using it. And if I wasted them on trivial things, I would not have one when I really needed it.

Mark Eatherton

These kids today...

Seems that in their normal day to day course of conversation (a.k.a. intercourse, look it up) they drop the F bomb every other word. Like it's NOTHING...



And, as an old fogey, it bothers me. Don't get me wrong. I'm not a pure choir boy. In certain situations, I will cut loose with a well rounded course of cursing, but it is generally around men, never around women, even if THEY (the women) are the ones using the foul language. I don't use it for emphasis as much as I do to solicit a laugh.



I think it was Dan who once said that people who use curse words in their normal course of conversation lack good language skills and have to resort to the cuss word in order to make themselves look important/intelligent. I agree...



The lack of cursing on this site has made it a unique spot on the web, and I hope it stays that way forever. I've seen some younger web sites where every other word is a cuss word, and I'm just not impressed.Thanks to everyone for keeping it clean around here.



ME

Charlie from wmass

I was taught by an old Scotsman

that on the construction site, if you did not use F@#@#ing as the descriptive word for an item or no one will know what you mean. That said it is not used when talking to home owners.

Jean-David Beyer

Cute joke.

Some work was being done by outside contractors at a convent.



In great distress, one of the nuns went to the mother superior. She said she could not bear the bad language the workmen were using in the convent.



The mother superior, wise in the ways of the world, explained to the nun that the men who do the heavy manual labor such as were being done were bound to use rough language; "they are likely to call a spade a spade" she explained.



But that is just the trouble, mother superior; they do not call it a spade, they call it a f@#$ing shovel!

Pat K

Cursing

Well you know they say that profanity is the inevitable

linguistic crutch, used by an inarticulate Mother F%&ker.

Mark Eatherton

Little Johnny...

Was buggin his mother one day, and to get him out of her hair, she said "Hey Johnny, why don't you walk across the street and watch those construction workers build that house for a while..." He obliged. He visited the job site, and listened to the conversations for a couple of hours. Upon his return, his mother asked him if he'd learned anything, to which he replied "You Effin A I did!" His mother was SHOCKED at this blue streak of language coming from little Johnnys lips. "You go to your room and you stay there until your father comes home! You're in serious trouble mister" He complied...



That evening, when his father finally arrived , mom explained to dad what had transpired and told dad that HE was to reprimand young Johnny for his outburst.



Dad approached Johhny, and told him what his mother had told him he'd said, and that Johnny knew it was wrong to use this kind of language, and that he was going to have to teach him a lesson. He told his son, "I'm gong to have to give you a spanking. Go out into the back yard and get me a switch", to which young Johnny replied "**** YOU, that's the electricians job!!!"



Telling a joke like this among the right crowd will crack a smile on the hardest of hard core contractors...



ME