Are Crude Jokes Acceptable in the Office?

Evil HR Lady,

I started my current job about 6 months ago, and I have a slight problem: I can’t really respect my colleagues. I’m not talking about “treating them with respect”, as I try to treat everyone with respect. I’m talking about an honest and genuine feeling of respect.I did work for quite a number of companies over the years, and I could always respect my mates for being professional, compassionate, nice, or whatever.

While my last company was in banking, my current job is at a university, so it’s possible that I’m being too uptight, since this is a pretty laid back place.

I’m not too fond of the daily farting contests, or routine rude jokes that people play here, but I could still respect these guys if they were hardcore professionals, which they are not. They are likeable, but that’s it.

With all that said, I can work with them without problems, so is it important at all to honestly respect each other at the workplace?

For full disclosure, I’m being paid well over the national average here, so I don’t really want to change jobs at the moment. And yes, I work in the IT department.

To read the answer click here: Are Crude Jokes Acceptable in the Office?