Profanity In The Workplace

Writing in their firm’s blog “California Peculiarities,” Seyfarth Shaw attorneys Nick Geannacopulos and Emily Barker look at what could be a dicey question in any state: How should an employer respond when employees use profanity in the workplace? Their article cites one recent case involving an angry employee who addressed  his boss with a pungent two-word epithet that managed to employ the f-word twice, was promptly fired, but then had to be reinstated with back pay, per the NLRB. “Hostile environment” matters are one thing, and may need employer intervention, but the writers conclude there isn’t much in the way of a profane outburst in the workplace that can be constrained, if it can arguably be said to address “terms and conditions of employment.”