"Bad" language is ubiquitous, like it or not, those children likely hear it daily either at home or at school.

I personally wouldn't say anything about it, mainly because I have been desensitized to swearing and it doesn't bother me, but also because I'm non-confrontational.

Unless your children were exposed and you were speaking in concern for them, I'd have to say that there are better things to worry about.

RM6- I am assuming based on the info from your profile you don't have children. If you did your feelings towards cussing might be different. Also I'm assuming that if eek was so taken back by these  employees behavior chances are cussing in their home isn't common.

Eek- You know my sister is a manager at one of our large stores here. I know for a FACT she would want to know about this if it happened at the store.That sort of thing should not be tolerated in the work place, and could hurt the owners business if people don't feel comfortable returning to their store.

No haha, of course I don't, I just got out of high school...you're definitely right tho, I'd probably feel differently if I did.

Also, you have to consider under what kind of circumstances the cussing took place, what specific word was used and whether it was meant to be offensive or not. (ie. smashing a finger vs. frustration, or insult vs. habit)

Exactly Red, swearing in church is NOT an appropriate circumstance, but I really don't see anything wrong with swearing if say you are a member of a construction crew and just hit your finger with a hammer. I'll bet you have used such language, as have I, and probably everyone else on this site, whether or not it was justifiable.

Anonymous is exactly right, this is the real world where undesired elements exist, and well, like it or not, we have to accept them and let more important things worry us.

Swearing while working in a PUBLIC place with customer's arround is not only rude but disrespectful. An employee is getting paid to work not to disrespect customer's with their bad language.

And I have also noticed that each time i have encountered this it has come from young people teenagers and young adults.

No one is trying to change the world here! Eek asked a question about how we would have handled this matter and we are responding to her question. Geesh!  Now obviously there are certain circumstances where bad language is kind of a given like a construction site, etc.  as someone already mentioned. I agree that this is the "real world" but I refuse to accept what is unacceptable.

 I don't think use of such language is appropriate in the work place or dealing with customers, but I have accepted it is part of the reality of our lives (just as it is in the reality of the lives our governmental leaders, from the top to the bottom, who use it).-Anonymous

I believe that it is this logic that is running our country into the ground!! There needs to be some sort of structure or rules that we need to abide by. I suppose we should also allow all these "kids" to go to work wearing tattered jeans or their pants around their ankles because that is what  they wear outside of work. They should be allowed to come to work late and leave whenever they please. You get a job at most any store and I guarantee that swearing or the use of "bad language" is a "no no" in the employee hand book along with dress code and time clock, vacation policies, etc. If one of these is to be ignored because we live in the "real world" what to stop us from saying none of them should be obeyed? Come on! What ever happened to professionalism?

Who are you (or me or any individual) to say what is acceptable and what is not? Everyone has their own values and morals, so we can only speak for ourselves. I think that we all have better things to worry about than a few words.that have been assigned, by society, an inappropriate meaning.

The kind of logic anonymous used is what gets every sane person through their lives.

"God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference..."

No, I don't think that it is ok to work in a public place and use "offensive" words. I was making the point that your definition of offensive may be different than other people's. Another point I was making was that complaining about a single word uttered some distance away from you is just a little bit ridiculous. Do you think that someone should lose their job over a such a complaint? That surely could have happened had you made it a point to talk to the manager.

Yes, and here is another thing to think about...Who on this blog can say that they are free from ever having used an "offensive" word within earshot of a person who could possibly have been offended???

"Stand for something or you will fall for anything." We are all standing for something, our differing opinions.

This "sleeze" that hammer talks of will only stop when people no longer consider it sleeze. Apparently most people in America don't consider it "sleeze" or it would not be on TV because of the simple fact that no one would watch and the "sleeze" wouldn't make the "sleeze sellers" money.