Organizations and their managers should be alert for an insidious, pervasive, and dangerous cause of potential liability claims—the use of vulgarity and profanity by management and employees. Vulgarity and profanity often form part of a workplace discrimination or harassment complaint. Moreover, this type of language can be at the source of workplace violence. It is disrespectful, hostile, and turns discussions into arguments—or worse.
A recent case decided by the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit illustrates the potential for liability. The Circuit Court ruled that Ingrid Reeves could go forward to a jury with her harassment claim based on a hostile environment even though the profanity she complained about was not directed specifically at her and was common in her workplace.
Reeves, the only woman employed by her shipping company employer, was forced to listen to a morning radio show that discussed topics such as the size of women’s breasts and elderly people having sex. Reeves was subjected to “conversations concerning ejaculation, men’s erotic dreams, female sexual anatomy, sources and indications of female sexual arousal, and female pornography.” The Court also said that for “nearly three years… employees allegedly used ‘sex specific’ language in Reeves’s presence every day and the offensive radio program was played every morning.”
Although nothing occurred in the office that was physically threatening, the Court found that a jury could find that the language and radio programming created an objectively humiliating work environment, particularly because Reeves was the only woman in the workstation pod. The Court was careful to point out that what Reeves experienced was not the “ordinary socializing” or “ordinary tribulations of the workplace, such as the sporadic use of abusive language, gender-related jokes, and occasional teasing.” In its unanimous decision, the Court pointed out that “[s]exual language and discussions that truly are indiscriminate do not themselves establish sexual harassment under Title VII… [n]evertheless, a member of a protected group cannot be forced to endure pervasive, derogatory conduct and references that are gender-specific in the workplace, just because the workplace may be otherwise rife with generally indiscriminate vulgar conduct.”
The Reeves case shows that in the workplace, vulgarity and profanity alone may support a claim for sexual harassment, even when the language is not directed at the complaining employee. What, then, should your organization do?
Clean up the language in your workplace.
For some employees, cursing has become a habit to be broken. These employees may not even realize they are using offensive words. For others, such language is deliberately and intentionally used to intimidate, humiliate, or dominate. And for some, it is only when a hammer falls on a toe do curse words fly out of their mouths. Whatever your employees’ and managers’ particular challenges are regarding profanity and vulgarity, it is up to you to recognize this potential source of liability in your workplace and take steps to eliminate it.
Often organizations create anti-profanity policies in an effort to curb the negativity that vulgarity and profanity create in the work environment. Others provide training and motivation for employees to clean up their language.
Whatever program you institute, give it time. Habits take time to alter. Be creative. Start, for example, with a “stop-swearing” campaign. Consider offering rewards or incentives for departments with a “no-cuss” record for a period of time. Develop a hand signal that could be used to warn an employee who is over the acceptable line. The efforts you put in place to eliminate profanity and vulgarity from your workplace could save your organization the financial and productivity losses that can result from a harassment claim.
