Welcome to the @#$1@!4 newsroom

I don't cuss that much in the newsroom, but I reserve the right to use Carlinesque words if I choose.

Then again, I'm not inclined to completely prohibit profanity at my shop. It is, after all, my shop.

 

My SE used to cuss up a storm. Then Sports started doing their own pagination and his cussing doubled. Now he has a pinched nerve that keeps him from sitting down and it's off the charts.
One time the system crashed (I was doing pages that night) and I dropped a ton of f-bombs, but I sang them, and in my mind, that makes it a lot better
For a much smaller thing I broke on a "con-fricking-sarn-it) and get made fun of to this day for that one.

 

There are plenty of thin or average sports writers. Makes no difference what your waist size is if you can write.

The swearing thing, though, unprofessional.

 

As a golden rule I try to treat others the way I want to be treated, so I really, really try not to run someone down - even in the heat of the moment.
Last week, I felt like my boss shafted me and I let him know it in no uncertain terms in the middle of the newroosm.
He took it well... a hell of a lot better than I would.
After telling him what I thought, I wheeled and went outside to cool off.
I felt bad about what I said the forum in which it was said.
Another golden rule is not run down employees, co-wokers or anyone else in a public forum. Do it alone, one-on-one.
At any rate, after I cooled off (about 15 minutes) I went back in, went straight to his desk (I have a lot of respect for the man and his judgement, but this was a heat-of- the-moment thing that caught me at the wrong time) and made a public aplology for both speaking to him in an unporfessional and crude manner and for doing so in the newsroom.
He was very gracious and told me not to worry about.
I apologized to him at least three times to make sure he knew I was sincere.
He was very cool about the whole thing.
I was lucky.

I make Harry S. Truman look like a Boy Scout when it comes to cursing in the newsroom.

 

Swearing is unprofessional?
It is in front of customers and people you cover, but I think it is ridiculous to say it is unprofessional to drop a string of f-bombs in the newsroom if so provoked. I know it is a lot better than breaking stuff, which I have seen many a co-worker do.

 

I've been in this business almost 18 years now, and from what I've seen, workplaces have become much more thin-skinned. I really watch what I say when I'm in the office, which, thankfully, is pretty seldom.

 

The women here cuss more than the men. But women can get away with anything.

 

I am of the belief that swearing is unprofessional. Turned off by it.

 

I mean in general.

As was pointed out, sometime you never know who is in the office.

The system goes down at midnight, OK.

But in general, especially around the public, I don't think it's appropriate.

But then I have had 16 years of teaching to break myself of dropping motherfuckers like so much popcorn.

 

Around the public, ok. In the newsroom, hell no.

 

I wish it weren't so prevalent. I mean, we're <b>writing about sports for a living.</b> How aggravating can it really be? (This is a rhetorical question, not an invitation to add another 10 pages). My point is, garbage men and hamburger flippers and your waiter at Chotchky's should, by nature, hate what they do enough to make profanity somewhat normal. To some of you, this may mean I have a stick up my ass, but c'mon - do we really need to be swearing about all the little stuff that we do?

 

Exactly. It has to do with being in a high-stress, deadline-driven environment, and when your computer crashes 15 minutes from deadline, it's a little hard to say, "Golly gee. My aging PC appears to have rogered me good. Oh well."