Say what?!

There are things you say at work, and then there are things you don’t say at work. Knowing the difference can be crucial to maintaining a positive image at your current place of employment, especially if you like to utter racial slurs and drop four letter words in the privacy of your own home, but hold down a job like “kindergarten teacher” where such remarks would probably be frowned upon.

Sure, being a consultant does not require the same level of verbal discipline that one would expect from a teacher, doctor, or nun, but still, consultants need to be more conservative in their choice of words than say, your average dock worker. Below are examples of what I have noticed in my one year tenure at my job. Do you think these are “work appropriate”?

1. Several of us are having dinner, and one of my colleagues, after being mocked by one of his peers, (another 20-something) said, “Why are you making fun of me? Make fun of him” [pointing to another employee at my company]. “He’s a walking joke.” Of course, this would have been fine, had he been pointing to another one of his peers. Except, he was pointing at a vice president who happened to be dining with us. Pointing at your superior and telling him to his face he’s a “walking joke”? Probably not work appropriate…

2. Another coworker, talking to the president of the company, mentioned how he was working on a project, and spent the entire night diligently pushing forward in his analysis. He then said that he expended so much energy that he nearly “busted a nut”. Now, when he said “busted a nut”, I’m guessing he meant “worked really hard to the point of injuring himself”. However, I’m pretty most people would agree that this can be interpreted very differently, and should probably not be said in the presence of the president of the company. Surely not work appropriate…

3. Yet another friend at my work was playing his music during regular business hours, which actually is generally accepted at my job. However, during one visit to his work area by a vice president, he left his music playing, (rather than turning it down or off, which I find is generally the best practice to employ). At the time, the song was “Horny” by T Mousse. I happen to like this song, but I don’t think I would want it playing while I talk to my superiors. The chorus goes:

I'm horny, horny, horny, horny
So horny, I'm horny, horny, horny
I'm horny, horny, horny, horny
So horny, I'm horny, horny, horny tonight
I'm horny, horny, horny, horny
So horny, I'm horny, horny, horny
I'm horny, horny, horny, horny
So horny, I'm horny, horny, horny tonight

Not very work appropriate, unless you work at a brothel or are an administrative assistant. But hey, seeing how he didn’t get fired, maybe it wasn’t such a big deal. In fact, my friend and the VP have been spending a lot more time together behind closed doors….

KIDDING!

But seriously folks, I need to stop, because this blog entry isn’t very work appropriate…