“People who continually swear look like they are out of control”

It’s also important to remember that, without body language, such as a smile or a raised eyebrow, swearing can appear offensive, which is why one should be particularly careful in emails, texts and messages. And written records can have a lasting impact. “It’s a paper trail,” Vicki Salemi, a career expert at Monster.com, told CNN Business. “You might have sent the email jokingly to a co-worker, but then all of a sudden the email goes up the leadership chain and, next thing you know, the vice president has the email and your name is attached to it.”

Many workers recognize that swearing can offend others. Yet more than half of workers admit to using bad language in the workplace. Managers need to be aware of the potential impact of swearing, says Entrepreneur.com: “Some supervisors may feel that if nobody has complained, nobody is offended. This is a risky assumption.” Certain words and expressions remain taboo. And racial, religious and other personal slurs are completely unacceptable inside and outside the workplace.

Even the mildest of profanities can offend. It all depends on the context and the individual. Writing on Psychologicalscience. org, Timothy Jay and Kristin Janschewitz say that “instead of thinking of swearing as uniformly harmful or morally wrong, more meaningful information about swearing can be obtained by asking what communication goals swearing achieves.” For example, on Forbes.com, David Sturt and Todd Nordstrom show the difference between a positive, assertive use, as in “we are so damn lucky”, and the negative, unhelpful use, as in “you damn idiot”.

Many workplaces have no precise policy regarding swearing. This leaves the management of such situations open to subjective interpretation — and challenge. To avoid potential conflict, Bizjournals.com suggests workplaces have a simple but specific profanity policy.

If you fear your swearing may be getting out of hand, why not use an app to help? In 2017, the UK charity Comic Relief created the Swear Jar app, which uses voice recognition software to identify 47 swear words in 21 different British accents. Each time a bad word is recognized by the app, a micro-payment is taken from your account and given to charity. Now, that’s a bloody brilliant idea!