“… About three-quarters of female millennial managers and executives admitted to swearing at work, according to a new study of 1,500 Americans conducted by work management platform Wrike. Just 58 percent of Generation Xers and Baby Boomers in the same roles said they swear while on the clock. About two-thirds of millennial employees across the ranks swear at work, according to the survey, and millennial women are less bothered than millennial men by workplace profanity.” …
I think we Boomers have dropped some significant bombs, too.
Me thinks that survey represents, not reality, but what those responding to it wished were reality. Being whatever I am (genx or boomer, take your pick), I can tell you that cursing was part of the landscape back then, too, I think people are cleaning up their legacy when they say “of course we didn’t curse back then”, kind of like the mom in “Back to the Future” talking about her day:)
Back in the day, there was resistance to the idea of swearing in a mixed-gender environment. So as the workplace became more mixed in terms of gender, some people may have felt a need to clean up their verbal act while at work. But now that it’s acceptable for a man to swear in front of a woman (or vice versa), it’s no longer necessary to make the effort.
Regardless of your age or gender, I don’t think most people today particularly care what you say when you spill your coffee all over the conference table. But a few decades ago, they might have.*
*Of course, a few generations ago, people didn’t eat and drink constantly at work. At least, I don’t remember that they did. But maybe I’m remembering things through rose-colored progressive lenses.
Cursing in work was widespread and present, especially in some areas like the computer technology field or biglaw long before the millennials arrived.
Wasn’t that big of a deal for me growing up despite attending Catholic elementary school in my old NYC neighborhood from grades 1-6 as my elementary school classmates and moreso…neighbors cursed up a storm without a care in the world.
In some ways, things might have actually been worse a decade or two or more ago as indicated by scandals regarding sexual harassing comments/emails and widespread acceptance of a working environment where one financial/banking firm set aside rooms for mid-higher level managers to watch porno movies during working hours. That is…until lawsuits were filed and the scandal broke in the newsmedia:
@cobrat:
That is a good point, iit was very different back then , there were a lot of things back then, like a manager thinking nothing of insinuating something about a female employees sex life or even touching them in ways that now would be considered harassment. I was talking about routine cursing, and tech is a very different area, so it may reflect where I was working, though I have heard enough stories to make me think it wasn’t uncommon elsewhere.