I just watched Zero Dark Thirty for the first time. One thing I found odd was the casual use of expletives and profanity in the formal meetings depicted during the film. As just one example of many, when the C.I.A. Director asked Maya, “Who are you?” during a high-level meeting, Maya responded, “I’m the motherfucker that found this place. Sir.”
It got me wondering… how prevalent is this?
I work at an Air Force Base and have been in countless meetings that can be described as formal and “high-level.” Never once have I heard anyone use foul language during such a meeting.
So what are your experiences? Do you attend many formal meetings? Are profanities causally thrown out?
Beyond the occasional “damn” or “hell”, not really. But I work in a kind of think tank environment. We don’t have the same level of stress as someone in the CIA/FBI/military/police/fire/EMT.
The military is different, or used to be (my dad retired from civil service with the military about 20 years ago; his experience included some very colourful cussing at times, but not constantly). I don’t know about the CIA, FBI, or similar groups.
It depends on what the meetings are about. The only time I hear cursing at my office is when a few of us gather around to discuss how to resolve the latest crisis or fuck up. Then everyone is emotional and needs to vent.
The issue with formal meetings is that you normally can’t call a formal meeting for a crisis. A crisis usually demands immediate attention. Formal meetings will almost always be casual.
It also depends on the boss. If the boss doesn’t curse, no one else will either.
I once served on a jury for a sex crimes case. It was very surreal to hear people repeat profanity and sexual slang in a deadpan tone of voice in the other wise extremely formal courtroom setting.
I work for the Department of State and hear it very rarely in meetings. In fact, one Ambassador got her knickers in a twist when someone used the word “sucked.” That said, I have heard the F-bomb dropped a couple of times but it’s rare.
I work with high level Operations management for a very large corporation and have had similar roles for other large companies in the past. Operations people work in profanity the same way that other artists work in water colors or clay. It is a very masculine (even the women) line of work that depends on a strict hierarchy so yelling and swearing is one tool that they have to enforce that. Even most of the executives in that line of work originally came from rough neighborhoods and very blue-collar backgrounds themselves so swearing up a storm comes naturally to them. Most of the people they lead are still industrial/blue-collar front-line workers that don’t respond to a light touch and feel-good business terms.
I don’t think there is any profanity other than racial slurs that I haven’t heard repeatedly in formal or informal meetings. I have even learned a few new words myself when people decided that a common ‘F’ bomb wouldn’t get the point across and they had to reach deeper into their bag of creative lexicon.
I know of/have been within hearing distance of partners meetings at two different law firms that would make a Marine DI blush. On the other hand where I work now the management team doesn’t go much past “darn” even when things go all to Hell.
I’m pretty sure my experience is skewed because men were always apologizing to me for their language. I seriously doubt that I reacted in a way that prompted an apology, because I mostly don’t hear profanity any more. I do feel as if cussin’ is a pretty lazy way of communicating - it always reminds me of a very young Marine I encountered about 40 years ago - every other word was a variant on “fuck”. I’m sure he thought he was one tough, macho dude but he came across as a child who discovered he could get a reaction by saying a “bad” word.
Anyway, I worked for years in a job that had me attending occasional meetings with fairly high-level military and gummint civilians. I don’t recall any particularly colorful language, but again, there may have been self-censoring because women were present.
Frankly, as a business executive, it happens all the time. It is never directed at anyone, nor it is to disparage some group. I can think of a few specific cases where it is used regularly, and it is almost exclusively the word fuck:
For emphasis: “that would be fucking awesome!” “what are they, fucking idiots?!” (e.g., a competitor)
To frame the Bad scenario: “we’d be fucked.” “to be clear: if you put all your eggs in that basket and the deal doesn’t come through, you’re fucked.”
To cut to the chase about the disarray in a situation: “look, it was a clusterfuck, okay? So we stepped in and took action…”
So, happens weekly or so. Mostly at the Leadership Team level, or within the context of Sales management. Across genders and age groups. No one blinks an eye and I have never heard of anyone taking issue with it.
I work in the logging industry, where even the few women chew and cuss. Out in the field, nobody can make it through a whole sentence without at least a couple of cuss words. Our sit-down meetings are pretty tame though, for the most part we would never direct a cuss word in anger toward another person. If you hear anything it would be more like “what the fuck was he thinking” and even that would be pretty rare.
I’m self-employed, I own a retail/wholesale company and I regularly have meetings between several distributors, a lot of times trading loads that one guy bought and is getting completely screwed on. Swearing is extremely prevalent but never in really a frustrated tone, more like…as word enhances I guess.
My favorite example:
One guy needs to unload 3000 cases of some bakery product and wants another guy to take it all. The buyer replies “If you aren’t prepared to have your pants around your ankles on this deal I’m not interested”
Oil and Gas. rarely hear anything in formal meetings in the offices, everything tends to be fairly polite, if a little strained at times. Generally when the operator wants to express disappointment with the way something went, it is a private meeting, with the occasional “what the fuck went wrong, please fix your shit”
Offshore operational meetings can get a little more colorful, but these days most people are fairly professional. 20 years ago, not so much, ineffectual yelling and swearing by the company man was the norm. Land operations today, well they are stuck back 30 years ago.
On the drill floor for a prejob meeting, well if the swear word to other word ratio drops below one, then you are just not communicating effectively.
I work in international development and specialize in conflict zones. In the home office in DC, it is not unheard of. In the field it can be very common on some projects, so much so that you could forget to turn it off and drop an F bomb in front of State Dept or other USG folk who are often and easily offended.
I used to work in logistics, import, export, domestic supply, of both the incoming raw materials and the outgoing finished goods for a production plant. To say that sometimes things did not go as planned would be a mild understatement.
Once during a meeting where I had to relate yet another supply issue that was going to impact both the production end and customer service, the CEO and part owner of the business just looked at me and said; “Fuck those fucking fucks!” Meaning look for another supplier.
This was years before The Big Lebowski came out with “Fuck you, you fucking fucks.”
“Fuck those fucking fucks” has since become a mantra of mine that I use whenever I am disappointed in the service I get anywhere. It is a refreshing statement about poor service and a release from ever doing business with them again. If you get frustrated with dealing with some people, be they your cable provider or your family during the holidays, just say it.
“Fuck those fucking fucks!” You will feel better, I know I do.
Hah, I literally just came back from a meeting ten minutes ago, during which time our director said “…whatever the hell it is…” and I thought “Hmmm, this must be a sore point for him,” because no one openly curses here. Even when you’re speaking one-on-one and someone lets slip a rare, “shit,” or something, they will immediately apologize.
E: Okay, I do work in a library, but don’t let the stereotypes fool you: there are some salty folks here. They just don’t curse.
Oh, we swear. Not with the public, but in section staff meetings. I am the biggest culprit, honestly. I have brought down the level of discourse and the dress code over the last 19 years. I’m not sorry, though. Words are just words.
