On an overcast afternoon in Brooklyn, N.Y., a group of preteen girls purposefully approached a boy. There was nobody else in the playground. It was 1969.
Hands planted on hips, one of the girls stood out from the others and addressed the boy, "We've decided not to play with you anymore because you curse too much." The other girls nodded in stern solidarity.
"Tough s**t," said the boy, who shrugged and walked off.
The following day, the boy apologized to the girls and said he would work on it. He had no intention of changing, but he didn't want to lose the girls' company either. The ploy worked, thus beginning a lifelong pattern that would continue through 20 years of dating and 18 years of marriage.
Okay, so you figured out who the boy was. Good thing my wife doesn't read the blog. She'd probably curse me all the way back to Brooklyn.
I bring all this up because I've often wondered if cursing is acceptable in the workplace. In my experience, most high-tech executives curse, some more than others. Moreover, there appears to be a general acceptance of a wide variance of behavior, from political correctness to the truly vulgar. ... Read More
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