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Congratulations, Washington office-dwellers. The job-search website Career Builder is out with a new survey that places D.C.’s workforce atop a very distinguished list. According to the report, we lead the nation in swearing at work.
Nationwide, 51 percent of respondents told Career Builder they let slip dirty words in front of their colleagues, but in D.C., that number goes up to 62 percent. How naughty are we by comparison to other cities?
Denver came in second, at 60 percent, followed by Chicago, where 58 percent of Windy City denizens freely admit to cursing up a storm at the office. Career Builder did not respond to DCist’s question if “swear words” were defined along the rubric of George Carlin’s “Seven Words You Can’t Say on Television” or a more expansive list.
Look, none of this is too shocking. Whether at home or at work, people need to blow off steam, and saying a couple bad words is far less harmful than, say, hitting objects or people. But even if it’s casual swearing, Career Builder says there is harm being done—the people doing all this cursing are impairing their future job prospects and reputations:
Employers are inclined to think less of an employee who swears at work for a variety of reasons. Most (81 percent) believe that the use of curse words brings the employee’s professionalism into question. Others are concerned with the lack of control (71 percent) and lack of maturity (68 percent) demonstrated by swearing at work, while 54 percent said swearing at work makes an employee appear less intelligent.
So, while it’s fun or relaxing to say bad words, sometimes the office isn’t the best place to do it. That’s why we were kind of surprised to see the two cities at the bottom of Career Builder’s list: New York (46 percent) and Philadelphia (44 percent). Who would have guessed that offices in two cities known for filthy mouths turn out to be filled with relative Sunday-school teachers.
Then again, this post was written free of blue language.
Oh, fuck it. Enjoy this tribute to bad words. Per Career Builder’s lame-ass advice, it’s probably not safe for work, so put your damn headphones on. And if someone gets shitty about it, just tell them to go to Hell:
