General Question

accusedofprofanity's avatar

Is saying "these people are from Hell" considered profanity at the workplace?

Asked by accusedofprofanity (30points) August 18th, 2009

My friend was at work,(he works at a call center) and after many unsucessful sales calls he said to himself “these people are from Hell”. Later he was told that he used profanity on the sales floor and could be terminated. His statement was heard by a manager that was monitoring his calls, but not by a client. It was said while the next call was being dialed.

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14 Answers

Jeruba's avatar

What any of us thinks is entirely irrelevant. It’s the rules of his workplace and the interpretation that his manager puts on those rules that matter.

Although the expression seems fairly mild to me, and getting frustrated occasionally is normal enough, it does represent an attitude that a business doesn’t want to convey to its clients. The remark could have been overheard by a client on the line with his neighbor in the next call booth.

The_Compassionate_Heretic's avatar

Just because he wasn’t on the line with someone when he said what he did doesn’t mean that his voice couldn’t be heard.

When others are on the phone, the people at the other end often hear conversations in the background.

Supacase's avatar

Hell is an unusual swear word as it is only a profanity if used in that context. Ministers can say “hell” during a sermon and another person could say “hell” with a completely different intent. It would appear to be profanity in this instance, which is most likely against the rules in the call center – especially in a call center.

Maybe no one was on the line, but you always have to be prepared for an error that could put you on the line with a customer in an instant, you could be overheard on another sales rep’s line, or the possibility that your line is being monitored.

bcstrummer's avatar

Cursing is a Christian sin, be non religious like me, and if they shun you for saying that, than it’s religious discrimination

Quagmire's avatar

So then in non-Christian organizations, cursing is allowed?

bcstrummer's avatar

@Quagmire
Sorry forgot to put this before

Jeruba's avatar

Psst, @bcstrummer, one little thing you might like to know is that you have about 10 minutes to edit a comment you have already posted. If you want to add or change something, you can, for as long as the ‘Edit this response’ link appears in red at the end.

Quagmire's avatar

@bcstrummer, can you tell me the name of non-Christian organizations, especially those that service the public, where employees are allowed to curse in front of customers?

bcstrummer's avatar

Dude, I mean @Quagmire, you’d have to google that, I used to do it all the time at my old jobs, and at the one I currently have, so if you find backup totally fluther it over to me, it’ll help, and if you’re being sarcastic, that’s douchey man, I’ll tolerate religion sometimes but once you get on my back for playing off religious rules, like freedom of religion, I get pissed

Quagmire's avatar

So you used to curse in front of customers all the time and it was acceptable was it? Yeah. Right.

(and if you want to get pissed, feel free).

bcstrummer's avatar

@Quagmire Dude I didn’t sware in front of customers, I’ll take that on another day, but even around employers and the boss I’d still fucking sware my ass off, and if you haven’t caught on now, just forget what I said and don’t put a smartass remark

Quagmire's avatar

Oh I WILL forget what you said, believe me.

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