Opinionated article about the use of work language in other contexts

Target audience- The Guardian

All Day, Everyday

Has the language you use at work started to follow you home? Have you been talking in a professional manner to your friends?

It is very often that people use the same language from work in their social life, this should stop. It is really not a healthy thing to use the language from your occupation outside of that area due to it may reduce the love you have for your career and confuse others that are not within that discourse community. This could happen as if you talk as though you are at work it will probably start to feel as though you are always at work and you can't relax. Nobody likes to feel they are working all the time.

Associating work with home can make life stressful.

As a lawyer, I very frequently use language from my profession in my social life. Cases are always going around in my head and this very frequently makes me tired of the job. Recently I have been noticing it more and how it is affecting my life. In work, I mostly use bald on-record as this fits the type of work I do however when I leave and use it in other contexts, such as the supermarket, I just come across rude.

Having occupational power does not mean that you will have social power and you may not notice that you are not in the same position of one hierarchy as the other. This could lead to awkward situations or people feeling that their face needs are being threatened. There are politeness strategies laid out by Goffman to protect the face needs from being threatened. So if at work you are a boss and at the top of your occupational hierarchy then you may use bald on record however outside of work you could be very low on the social hierarchy and so using a more direct way of talk may be seen as rude.

Bringing your work language to other aspects of your life could be a good thing as you may influence those around you do broaden their vocabulary and knowledge. However, they may not enjoy this, it could make people feel trapped. I definitely would not enjoy if my brother continuously used language from the lexical field of lift engineering it would make everything so much harder. The worst thing about taking your work language into other contexts is the effect it could have on the children that are around it. I believe the use of occupational language could have a bad effect on children as the use could make them feel as though they are in a place of work at home. For example, in care homes having words such as office and staffroom. They are cold and impersonal which is not good for the development of the child they may always feel as though their home is not their home.

Work should stay in work. Don't negatively affect yourself and those around you because you cannot separate occupational language from social language.