You've probably heard about Carol Bartz, recently fired as CEO of Yahoo! Bartz was known as a tough woman who did not polish her language, going so far as to say that Yahoo's board had screwed her over (except she did not say screw).

CNN has an article discussing whether Bartz' language was appropriate--more so in the context of what is perceived as appropriate for women versus men. Apparently, women are judged more harshly than men if they use curse words on the job.

In my opinion, it is not a male versus female thing. It is an appropriate versus inappropriate thing. It is absolutely not appropriate to use curse words in business communication and in public fora. I am not saying you should not curse--I do all the time--I just don't do it in a business communication (this blog for instance) or in public (like Twitter for instance).  You would not load a press release with curse words, would you? Would you run into a store, full of people you don't know, and curse at the top of your lungs? I hope not.

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