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You Can't Say Sh*t at Goldman!

Literally: Firm has banned swearing in emails, texts, chats

By Emily Rauhala,  Newser User

Posted Jul 29, 2010 5:25 AM CDT | Updated Jul 29, 2010 6:30 AM CDT
Email

(Newser) – This is a whole new kind of Wall Street cleanup: Goldman Sachs has banned naughty words. In the wake of a $500 million fine for fraud, the fabled firm has decided to screen employee emails for a bevy of naughty words and phrases. Although they've yet to set out specific consequences for curses, habitual pottymouths can expect a talking-to from their manager, notes the Wall Street Journal.

Goldman isn't the only firm with trash-talking traders. One former Merrill Lynch stock analyst, Henry Blodget, once used the acronym "POS" to describe a stock he was touting. He was later fired. "There is case after case of email disaster," says a former federal prosecutor. "But it seems to be an unlearnable lesson."




Zip it.
Zip it.   (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 10 comments
Misha
Jul 30, 2010 12:47 AM CDT
Federal government has a law that all companies need to keep all emails (internal and external) on their servers for 7 years (minimum), in case of some future investigation or lawsuit. That means that nothing that one Goldman staffer says to another is ever truly private at all, in or out of context. (Or, I should say that nothing one Goldman staffer emails to another is ever truly private, since spoken communications, and telephone communications, are not required to be recorded, for ever and ever and ever.) Does federal law have a "chilling" effect on clear, true and unfettered party-to-party (in this case within a single corporation) communication? You bet it does! Goldman learned that the hard way, with this recent legal trouble the company experienced (which has since been quietly solved, just in case you utterly failed to notice). The company's reaction, telling staffers not to swear, and basically "not to say anything that could ever be used against you, or the company, ever" is the logical outcome of current federal law. It's a no-brainer, really, and a wonder they weren't following this policy before the recent outbreak of federal madness afflicted the company.
getherdone
Jul 29, 2010 1:00 PM CDT
Well if that isn't just a bunch of shit.
stevsie
Jul 29, 2010 12:04 PM CDT
so they wont get busted talking about how stupid the public is again.....

 
curse • cursing • Goldman Sachs • swearing

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