Swearing in the workplace is common although the extent to which it happens varies depending on work environment and culture. Leaders and managers in children’s and youth services know it can be a stressful sector to work in. Setting clear standards of behaviour and effective management of complaints about swearing in the workplace helps protect an organisation’s reputation, reduces the risk of legal claims against employers and supports staff welfare.
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Know where to draw the line. Managers must decide where to draw the line when it comes to swearing. Discrimination and bullying are never acceptable and the law protects workers – and others including job applicants – from discrimination and harassment on the basis of protected characteristics. Swearing falls into a bit of a grey area. Swearwords aimed at others and said in anger are most likely to cause offence, especially when the terms used could be seen as discriminatory. Language evolves over time and if your workforce is made up of different age groups, people may not agree on whether certain words or phrases are derogatory or have alternative meanings.
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Thoroughly investigate staff complaints. It is important to fully investigate staff complaints and follow up grievances promptly and sensitively. This will give people confidence so that if they do feel uncomfortable or bullied, they know matters will be addressed.
Where complaints or offensive environments are not effectively addressed, employers leave themselves open to legal claims for failing to protect employees’ health and safety and prevent discrimination. Employers can be held liable for discriminatory acts that take place in the course of employment. This can be the case even where bad language is commonly used at work or if staff claim it is just “banter”.
Unless your workplace has an outright swearing ban, much will depend on the context and circumstances surrounding what was said. Managers should consider the offensiveness of the words, who or what the words were directed at, where they were said and the tone used.
When investigating an incident or complaint it is often necessary to look at several sources of evidence. For example, where you have conflicting accounts as to whether a person swore aggressively, witness statements may be combined with CCTV footage to check body language while emails sent before an incident may provide some context.
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Ensure disciplinary measures are appropriate. When deciding on disciplinary sanctions, mitigating factors include provocation, unusual outbursts in the heat of the moment, and personal issues such as bereavement or other problems at home, which can lead to out-of-character behaviour. Where swearing is out of character, or increases in use or intensity, this can indicate an employee is under greater stress and may need support. Recognising changes in colleagues and discussing these privately supports staff welfare and may prevent further problems.
Although it is not usual to dismiss long-serving employees for one-off instances of swearing, there may be some circumstances where this is appropriate. Bad language will tend to be viewed more seriously if there has been damage to an employer’s reputation, where conduct attracts criticism from regulators, or where offensive behaviour has been repeated.
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Set clear expectations. Have up-to-date, clear policies complete with examples of unacceptable conduct, so there are no surprises when these standards are upheld.
Revise policies – when necessary – to address areas where clarity is required, or boundaries need re-defining. Employees do not always conduct themselves in the same manner on social media, or via email or instant messenger, as they would in person. It is useful to remind workers of the reputational damage and disciplinary action that can result from inappropriate conversations. During lockdown many more professionals – including those working with children and young people – have been working from home and this may have led to an increase in informal conversation, including swearing. Training reminds workers what is expected of them.
Where swearing between colleagues has been permitted as part of workplace culture, but you wish to adopt stricter standards, new expectations need to be communicated effectively. Consistency is key. Ignoring bad language from one person while applying harsh sanctions to someone else who behaves in a similar way, is unfair and will damage staff morale. However, many organisations do successfully hold senior staff to higher standards, expecting them to role-model respect for others.
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Maintain professionalism at all times. Even if your organisation permits a level of non-aggressive swearing between colleagues, most would agree different rules should apply to the language used in front of service users including young children, teenagers and their parents. If children are told off for using offensive language at school or home, then swearing in their presence sends a confusing message. Some staff may be tempted to use swear words in an attempt to relate to young people. However, it is important to maintain professional boundaries at all times.
