Have you ever cursed on the job?  In front of your boss?  To your coworkers?  Well…you should probably shut your trap.  Turns out a lot of people do and it’s not going to help with that raise.  According to a recent CareerBuilder survey, “64 percent of employers think less of an employee who repeatedly uses curse words, and 57 percent are less likely to promote someone who swears in the office” (Wong, para. 2).

According to the same survey, most of these potty mouths are employees aged 35-44.  The people who swear the least?  Employees aged 18-24.  Are you surprised?  I’m not.

Longer standing employees often feel more secure in their positions.  They have more years in the business and perhaps they subconsciously use that to justify the $&*! that comes out of their mouths.

In my experience, most workplace swearing happens in the lunchroom.  Employees are off the clock and ready to release their morning stress.  However, as soon as some people stop working, they seem to forget they are still AT WORK.   I’m no boss, but I certainly think less of these individuals who feel the need to dirty up my down time.

I believe the same principles apply to social media.  If you’re using social media to build a professional network, engage with coworkers, friends, family, whoever and wherever that may be, clean it up a little!  I’ve certainly done my fair share of swearing but there’s a time and place for it.  If you want to compare whose boss is a bigger a$$hole, go out to lunch.

As far as social media goes, I really don’t appreciate inappropriate tweets or Facebook posts with my name attached to them.  I don’t have time to monitor everything others say to me or about me, but at the same time, I don’t want anyone thinking less of me.  So…if you’re at work or online, keep it classy!

- H. Acito

Wong, Vanessa.  Cursing at Work Harms your @#$%& Career

In the United States, when a company is hiring new sales or marketing personnel, how much value is placed in one’s guanxi? I suspect very little. In the past, one might hire a salesperson with a good rolodex and references, but in today’s economy one’s web reach should also be considered.

Imagine you own a printing company. You’re interviewing a 25 year old who comes with 1,000 twitter followers, 4,000 facebook friends, and a weekly blog titled “creativity for B2B marketers within non-creative industries.” Do you think the interviewee will just talk about conflict resolution and their skills at navigating MS Office? Absolutely not – they’ve got web-guanxi!

During your next hire, consider the following two things which I learned from my friends at HubSpot. First, create a spreadsheet that allows you to note the reach each applicant has on different social media platforms. Second, during the interview, explore how often the applicant talks about work within their social media communities. With these two simple steps, you could hire employees with web reach and guanxi your organization can leverage.

____ 

JP Anderson serves as Director of Admissions at Northeastern Seminary in Rochester, NY. He is currently completing a Master of Science in Strategic Marketing at Roberts Wesleyan College.