Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Appropriate Language for Work

WARNING: This posts does contain language that some of my readers may find offensive. If you are prone to take offense to mild expletives, this may be a post for you to skip over.

Today one of my co-workers came in to ask if I had completed a task he had asked me to do. I said that I had, and explained to him the rest of it, and he said, THANKS! You are the shit!
I replied, Nope. Try again.
He said, You are awesome? and I nodded my acceptance of this substitution.
Later his boss came in to ask if I had completed a task he had asked me to do. I said that I had, and gave him the info. Then we had the following conversation:
He said, "THANKS! You are the-- Wait, i can't say you are the shit because Jason said you yelled at him for that. Can I call you the shizz-nit?"
I replied, "Okay, First, Jason's is a rather broad interpretation of 'yelling'. And second, you may not call me 'shizz-nit'."
"Then what am I supposed to call you?"
"You can tell me you appreciate me, or you can call me awesome like Jason does... use your imagination, I am sure you will come up with something more appropriate."
"Poop. I could call you the poop."
"Nope. Try again."
Unfortunately... I have the feeling this is going to be an ongoing battle. But one I am willing to fight. If you are trying to compliment or show your appreciation to someone, you don't do so by calling them various names for excrement. Surely you can make a better decision. Surely I am not out of line for requesting they make a better choice of words?

In somewhat related news, little kids are funny. I had a 2 year old wander into my office this morning singing a song about the "Itchy, bitchy, spider" Of course, I just giggled as she was singing... I could have corrected her and asked her to make a better choice. But I didn't-- because apparently I find a two year old with an unintentional potty-mouth ammusing. (30 yr old plumber? not so much)

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