WTF is Business Casual
Buckle up for real HR stories that'll make you laugh, cringe, and thank your lucky stars you're not that guy.
WTF is Business Casual is the HR podcast where two seasoned consultants—Sarah Bursten and Jenny Lavey, co-founders of RiseHR—dish on wild workplace fails, toxic bosses, employee drama, and leadership gone wrong. With 35+ years of combined experience in HR, leadership development, and people management, they offer surprisingly useful advice wrapped in real talk and hilarious storytelling.
If you’re an HR professional, small business owner, people manager, or just someone who’s survived office politics, this show is for you.
Subscribe to WTF is Business Casual—because work is weird, leadership is messy, and people always be peopling.
Hosted by Sarah Bursten & Jenny Lavey | RiseHR
www.risehumanresources.com
WTF is Business Casual
Cussing at Work: Where “Authentic” Meets “HR Nightmare”
This week, Jenny and Sarah tackle a topic that somehow manages to be both extremely relatable and extremely lawsuit-y: swearing at work.
It starts with a law update that made both of them do a double take. Turns out, “letting an F-word fly” at work is no longer just a culture question. In some cases, it is a legal one. And in 2024 and 2025, the courts made that line a lot thinner than it used to be.
What’s inside this episode:
[05:32] Why swearing can make you seem more authentic and more trustworthy, according to research
[12:17] Why that same swearing can still get your company sued
[14:56] The court cases that changed the rules around hostile work environment claims
[15:55] Why one single comment can now be enough to trigger serious legal trouble
[25:09] The difference between swearing at the printer and swearing at a person
[17:17] Why gender-specific and identity-based slurs are basically a career-ending choice
[18:13] How different industries and different countries treat workplace language very differently
[28:31] The impossible spot employers are in between the EEOC and the NLRB
[34:25] Why “that’s just how our industry is” is not a legal defense
[35:48] What new grads and early-career employees should do about swearing at work (hint: don’t)
[39:03] How much these lawsuits actually cost companies when things go wrong
[40:30] Why culture always starts at the top, for better or worse
Jenny and Sarah are not here to pretend nobody ever swears. They are here to explain why the workplace is a different arena, why intent does not protect you from impact, and why “we’ve always done it this way” is a very expensive strategy.
Hit play for some uncomfortable truths, a few wild stories, and a very clear explanation of why the law does not care how authentic you feel.
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