Today we have not one but two stories on how employees got in trouble for swearing on the job.
Here at HRB headquarters, one of our company’s core values is “collegiality” toward our co-workers.
It’s a rather open-ended, and perhaps ill-defined concept. But it’s one that’s difficult to disagree with.
So, is it anti-collegial (OK, I just made up that word) to use a four-letter word in the presence of co-workers? In these two cases, apparently so.
Case No. 1: A Nashville 911 operator was fired after saying he “didn’t give a s—” about what happened to a woman who called the emergency service.
A spokeswoman for the local emergency communications center said Frank Roth was in training during the incident and was fired a month later.
Roth made the comment after speaking on the phone with a woman who said her ex-boyfriend held her at knifepoint and later was threatening her.
A local TV station, WTVF, got a recording of the conversation. What Roth may not have realized is that after he hung up and made the comment, tape of what was happening in the 911 center was still rolling.
Case No. 2: The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission has fined a cabbie $1,000 for swearing at one of his fellow taxi drivers.
Driver Malik Rizwan honked at fellow cabbie Zbigniew Sobczak after Sobczak cut him off. Then Sobczak jumped out of his cab and used a vulgarity repeatedly.
Rizwan called police and accused Sobczak of assault.
Sobczak was found guilty of verbal harassment, not assault.
This case actually goes against precedent (yes, believe it or not, there’s legal precedent about NYC cabbies swearing).
In 1982, a court found that a cab driver’s “use of profanity during a fight with a pedestrian was not misconduct given cognizance to the realities of life in New York City.” (Translation: NYC can be a rough place where cabbies may be expected to use rough language.)
But Taxi and Limousine Commission Chairman Matthew Daus said the city has changed over the years and that “it’s become more civil … The days when drivers can curse at each other are over in my opinioin.”
Sobczak’s lawyer told the New York Post, “You’re asking cabbies to be inhuman and not react to … things any one of us would react to.”
HRB’s reaction to all this is “Holy *&%$.” (Uh oh, here come the collegiality police.)
