Goldman Sachs Bans Profanity In E-Mails

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You should be careful of anything you transmit over this thing call the Internet. Case in point, some Goldman Sachs bankers had their internal e-mails read aloud at some US Senate hearings regarding the economic recession. Some of the language wasn’t pretty, and now GS is responding by banning naughty words from electronic mails.

Goldman Sachs was once considered the gold standard for Wall Street firms. A subprime mortgage crisis later, they’ve been tarnished a bit but they’re still a big presence on the ‘Street with their 34,000 employees. Their employees won’t be allowed to swear in e-mails, though. That includes e-mails and text messages sent from company-issued cell phones, too.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the catalyst for this was some internal e-mails written by executive Thomas Montag. Montag had his e-mail read aloud during a US Senate hearing. He wrote:

Boy, that Timberwolf was one s**t deal.

Quite – as GS was embarrassed by the profanity being showcased in a public light.

GS isn’t taking this embargo lightly. They’ve got software in place to actually block profanity-filled e-mails.

Depending on how severe the profanity is, the e-mail will either be redirected to human resources or just bounced back to the sender. But either way, it’s a no go. No direct punishment was laid out – but managers will be informed if their employees have the mouth of a sailor.

According to the WSJ, GS employees wonder if they’ll be allowed to internet-isms like WTF. Or, they’re wondering if they’ll be allowed to use words that sound like the profane words. I have a feeling that “ph” may be substituted for “f” in a lot of e-mails at the GS offices now.