I just came from a 30 minute meeting that started two hours ago.
My team is facing an accuracy-vs-timeliness dilemma. Data has been so sloppy for so long that, we have come to realize, it will take much longer than is practical for us to make everything perfect. So we're faced with making the data good enough quickly enough for us to actually benefit from it.
Understandably, CEO is unhappy to be told this.
"I'd better start brushing up my resume because I'm about to get fired. I've always known you assholes would cost me my job. And I'm not happy about it."
He used the
a word, many derivatives of
shit, and a few
sonuvabitch-es without batting an eye. However, when he let an
f-bomb slip, he genuinely apologized to K and I, the females in the room; mostly to me, as everyone who has had the pleasure of conversing with K for longer than five minutes has been subject to her prolific usage of the word. Not only did CEO apologize, he begged my forgiveness and did not sit down until I granted it.
When he left the meeting, he exited the room, turned around in the hallway, re-entered and addressed me, "I'm really sorry for my potty mouth earlier."
Why is it such a violation of social and professional graces to utter this word in mixed company, but less inappropriate to do so when interacting with men only?
Does it have anything to do with boobs?
long hair?
repressed issues of maternal psychopathology?