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APRIL 3, 2026
CAN I SPEAK TO A MANAGER? AIKEN-AUGUSTA’S MOST SALUBRIOUS NEWSPAPER • OUR 20th YEAR
As you might have noticed, we live in a world that is increasingly rude and crude. It’s hard to miss. Some may welcome the trend as direct and honest speech, a breath of fresh air, while others are appalled. Either way, the real question is (at least for the Medical Examiner) does it have any connection to health, medicine and wellness? We decided to investigate the science.
What’s happening First, a bit of historical perspective. Not very long ago in any bedroom scene on TV shows, married couples were always shown in separate beds. Elvis could only be shown from the waist up. When Clark Gable uttered his famous line in Gone With the Wind, audiences gasped at the word “damn.” It was shocking, and many would have walked out of the theater — except that it came at the very end of the movie anyway. Fast forward to the spring of 2026 and a Georgia gubernatorial candidate tells voters, “I sure as hell didn’t” do this or that. People who hold opposing views are personally attacked as scumbags and sleazeballs. Sexual offenses (including alleged crimes) are defended or dismissed as fake news when not too long ago the very whiff of scandal ended careers. The US Secretary of Defense, in a widely publicized speech to senior military leaders, used the acronym “F.A.F.O.” in a warning to enemies of the United States (IYKYK). In the advertising world, crude wordplay is a growing trend. An ad starring “Will Shat” fea-
tures a Shih Tzu. A drug ad uses the tagline “Kick pain in the Aspercreme.” A fried chicken restaurant promises a “clucking good time.” Here in Augusta, an orthodontics practice uses “shift happens” as a marketing slogan, and a car dealer offering specials on pickups used “get the truck out” in an ad campaign.” Subtle? Not exactly. We’re all adults, right? Actually we aren’t, but even if we were, do things like this really matter within the context of health? They do indeed, and by way of explanation, let’s address a question you might be pondering at this very moment: is this article an example of bait & switch? After all, the headline makes it seem like
AUGUSTARX.COM
the topic is going to be anger management-related, but so far it isn’t. Well guess what? It’s all related. Crudeness – which broadly defines what we’ve covered so far — breeds rudeness. And rudeness has more negative side effects than this issue — all 16 pages — can contain. A good place to start is within healthcare. A systematic review and meta-analysis of more than 40 studies encompassing 11,000+ nurses published in 2024 in the Journal of Advanced Nursing came to this conclusion: “Workplace incivility* was associated with a range of [negative] patient safety outcomes including near misses, adverse events, reduced procedural and diagnostic performance, medical error and mortality.” (When they say mortality, they mean death.) And the effect isn’t exactly rare: “Incivility, both witnessed and [personally] experienced, is prevalent in healthcare settings.” Just how prevalent? The Canadian Medical Association Journal reported in 2024, “More than 75% of health care employees have witnessed uncivil behaviour from physicians, and 31% of physicians report receiving weekly or daily rude, dismissive or aggressive communication from other doctors.” If incivility in the realm of healthcare of all places can measurably degrade health, then what effect does our widespread and growing cultural incivility — in politics, media, advertising, and public discourse — Please see MANAGER page 8
* Within the nursing profession, the nature of “incivility” includes wrongfully blaming others for own errors, gossiping, cursing at others, ignoring, yelling, interrupting, or taking credit for someone else’s work.
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