OOPS- They Said It Again. Is Profanity In The Workplace On The Increase?

It happened the first time at the Blogher conference.  Two months later it happened again at a National Center for Business Journalism's workshop for business journalism.

Two major profanities out of the mouths of speakers during two very different business conferences.

At one time using dirty words in business was limited to discreet situations.

Businessmen actually used to apologize to women when they inadvertently used "foul language." We graciously accepted their apologies assuring them their language didn't offend us.(How could it? We swore like sailors--just not necessarily in front of them)

Swearing at work isn't new, it's just that people used to restrict where they did it. Most often the vulgar language occurred  behind closed doors. That's the way it was.

There was language for private business conversations and there was the language for public business situations. The two seem to be converging.

Are  profanity-sprinkled speeches now the trend at business conferences?  Could be.

At Blogher, the presenter greeted the group of  about 300 bloggers with an enthusiastic F#$K - THEM! ( referring to the current environment that seems to give more credibility and media attention to male bloggers).

At the journalism workshop, it was The New York Times columnist Joe Nocera who dropped the B-Bomb. Nocera was the lunch speaker for a group of 30 some business journalists. In his opening remarks, Nocera casually walked up to the podium and said something to the effect, " I don't want to  spend all the time talking  about my bulls#$%-. I want to leave plenty of time for your bulls#$%."

Except for a few God Damns here and there, that was the extent of Nocera's profanity.

After the workshop,I sent an email to Nocera asking if he would be willing to do an interview about the use of profanity in business meetings. He responded in less than an hour. We chatted on Monday.

In reflecting about his use of bulls#$% as part of his opening remarks, Nocera thinks of it as an ice-breaker.

"I did it because I wanted to convey an immediate sense of informality--that I am a plain-spoken person," said Nocera who added," I find it an effective tactic to get your point across. It gets people's attention and makes them laugh.It's a useful technique."

Nocera said he likes to use bulls#$% when he gives talks because it's a mood setter that emphasizes that he is a guy who doesn't bulls#$%.

As we were ending our conversation Nocera said he didn't think it was a big deal.

Which is exactly why I think it is a big deal.

When people who are presenting in front of strangers no longer feel the need to "watch their language", that's a big deal.

So far the written word, at least in most mainstream publications, sticks with "cleaner" versions of the language. Not so with bloggers who regularly  use profanity in their written posts.

However, with trends being the way they are,could it really be that far away before we regularly see F&*% and Bulls&*% in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal?