Michael was a bald and rather funny executive I briefly worked with quite some time ago. I still remember though how he would heat up in a discussion, walk into his office in a controlled yet quick pace, close the door firmly behind him and start muttering curses and barracking at whatever circumstance or (more frequently) person had derailed him that day. A few minutes later he would emerge a different person, sometimes even braving a smile.
Mark Twain famously stated that "in certain trying circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profany furnishes a relief denied even to prayer". A 2009 study reported in the last issue of Psychology Today revealed that swearing increases a subject's pain tolerance: "Subjects were asked to submerge their hands in a bath of ice water and keep them there as long as they could. When subjects were allowed to curse, they were able to keep their hands in the icy water longer."
Our avant-garde office protocols would never allow for much public cursing. It is maybe only in closed offices that one can escape the pressure, relax and indulge in such ageless relief techniques. As Michael must have appreciated long ago, privacy for unlimited cursing might have become a pleasurable yet well overlooked executive perk.
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