New Research: Swearing at Work is Good For You and Your Team

As Marketwatch reported:

Yehuda Baruch, a management professor at the University of East Anglia
in Norwich, U.K., and graduate student Stuart Jenkins found that
"apparent misbehavior can serve an organization well." Taboo language,
they said, can manifest itself in solidarity that helps create a much
more pleasurable and productive place to work.

In the case of assholes, complaining about them, even calling yourself an asshole now and then can have this effect.  But calling other people assholes to their face (unless it is part of a teasing relationship where that is seen as acceptable fun) can be dangerous.  But this sounds right to me, as that is pretty much how people talk in every workplace that I’ve ever been.  And although Professor Baruch is right that, as rule, you shouldn’t swear in front of customers, of course that doesn’t hold at all times. For example, we expect from comedians, and so the people who bring me in to give talks about The No Asshole Rule!