Excessive Expletives

I don't mind the use of a well-placed 4-letter word on occasion. I try to avoid using them any more than very seldom though, because I think it's easy to overdo the expletives. My experience is that people who use a lot of expletives in their speech are not usually very precise. For example, I was talking to a neighbor once and he kept repeating "John Doe (a politician) is a XXXXXX." I didn't (and still don't) know what my neighbor didn't like about John Doe. His foreign policy? Economic policy? Views on civil rights? It was lazy and much easier just to repeat the expletive. It would have taken a lot more effort to clarify his opinion, so my neighbor took the easy way out and used an expletive.

I also find it easy to get in the habit of using foul language without thinking about it. Do I really want to drop "the F-bomb" without knowing it? It's a habit that gets worse without monitoring, and I really don't want to be someone who is known for having a foul mouth. I don't ever want expletives coming out of my mouth without my intending for them to.

In my opinion, expletives are generally inappropriate in a professional setting. I was interviewing a dog trainer we were considering hiring, and he referred to dog poop with a much stronger version of the word repeatedly throughout the conversation. It's not unexpected to talk about poop whenever you talk with another dog person, but for a professional to use the S-word repeatedly with a potential new client made me question his judgment in other areas. It's one thing to use expletives in a select setting with people whose comfort level you are familiar with. This trainer knew nothing about me, and just assumed I was fine with his language. It's not that my delicate ears were so offended, but someone that doesn't know basic good manners and business conduct may have bad judgment elsewhere.

Perhaps the most important reason I don't regularly use expletives is that I want to project an image of someone who is bright, articulate, precise in thought and speech, respectful of others, and in control of myself. I want to be someone who can describe complex ideas and perhaps even argue them without resorting to imprecise language that may be offensive to some.




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