News & Politics

DC Employees Ranked Most Likely to Drop an F-Bomb at Work

According to a recent survey, District employees don’t hold their tongues—or watch their mouths—while on the job.

Do you swear at work? According to a recent survey, 62 percent of you would say yes. Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

The Washington area is home to a great many very smart people. But apparently these
folks don’t always use what we assume are fairly extensive vocabularies when it comes
to expressing emotion at work.

We may rank second in
coolness

and third in rudeness, but there’s one area where the good
people of the District
reign supreme—the use of colorful language at work.

According to a recent survey from CareerBuilder and Harris Interactive, 62 percent
of DC employees admitted to regularly using a word or two they’d avoid saying in front
of Grandma while on the job. The second most foul-mouthed city was Denver, with 60
percent of employees reporting they used colorful language, and Chicago rounded off
the top three with a solid 58 percent.

A number of factors could contribute to our area’s employees failing to pardon their
French. Maybe it’s the pressures of working in government. Maybe we’re less inclined
to use our 10-cent words to express our emotions. Or maybe it’s just that sh*t is
f***ed up and we’re not afraid to say it.

Unfortunately for those of us with mouths like sailors, according to the survey most
of the participants believe the use of curse words at work displays a lack of professionalism,
maturity, and intelligence.

Which means it may be time to get more creative.

What do you think of this s**t? Let us know in the comments.