SUBCONSCIOUS PROFANITY?
Don D
9,834 Posts
It's a new one on me. Anybody have any knowledge of this behavioral trait? We just hired a college student to work several hours daily with our PC and related equipment problems. Great troubleshooter, straight-A student, glowing recommendations, clean cut, straight as an arrow. Today, while troubleshooting a printer problem in the office of the HR Assistant, he let go with a string of profanity that would match any you've ever heard, and it kept on going. He left and returned and did it again. She confronted him and read him the riot act. He had already attended orientation including sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct. I went upstairs to the computer room and gave him my 'Dad's Talk'. He apologized and said he had tried for two years to stop it. He says it's unplanned and largely uncontrollable but he will do his best. I told him he would or he'd be gone. I asked if he had ever discussed the phenomenon with a medical professional since he says he can't see it coming and doesn't even realize he's doing it. He said he had talked to a psychiatrist once about it but the guy didn't say much about it and dismissed it. When he was training last week, he told the IT trainer that he didn't want to read a brief manual because of ADHD. What am I dealing with here? Is this symptomatic of ADHD?
Comments
Tourettes is a neurological disorder and if he had it, he would not be able to control the outbursts, but I believe I recall there are some medications that can be helpful. Twitching is another common symptom.
He should also still be held accountable to reading all the material that is given to him. Having ADHD shouldn't allow him to not "want" to read something.
Good luck, Don.
Peyton Irby
Editor, Mississippi Employment Law Letter
Watkins Ludlam Winter & Stennis, P.A.
(601) 949-4810
[email]pirby@watkinsludlam.com[/email]
If the manual is brief, have someone read it for him.
As for the cussing, sounds like tourettes syndrome as others have mentioned. I had an EE once who had a brain injury from an accident with a horse. Every once in awhile he would ask to hold your hand and maybe say he loved you. Men, women, didnt matter. He warned me about it ahead of time. At first I thought he was pulling my leg but he wasn't. Its wasnt really something he could control.
He worked in our dishroom and the thought of him just standing there holding some burly dude's hand like they were on a first date was almost kind of cute.