The following story came to me this week from a reader who's sentiments may be shared by a lot folks. If I am the last one on the planet to have seen it and it has been circulating around the web for a long time, please excuse my redundancy.

The story pokes fun at business bureaucracy, mismanagement, corporate fairness, employee relations and more. Finding this type of story more often in your in-box displays a kind of recession fatigue and growing cynicism.

A foreign company and an American company decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race. On the big day, the foreign company won by a mile. The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.

Their conclusion was the foreign team had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing. Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They advised that too many people were steering the boat while not enough people were rowing.

In a typical business district in a typical town, deep within the walls of a cubicle farm, one employee affably calls another a four-letter word. Another responds with an "F-bomb," as the self-censoring kids call it these days. Phrases that would make the FCC blush bounce back and forth between the walls of the world's companies, and it's surprisingly good for business.

According to a recent study by researchers in the U.K., regular swearing among employees can "boost team spirit" among co-workers, allow for better self-expression, and form social bonds. While using taboo words in front of customers or senior management should remain frowned upon, an enforced moratorium on swear words can have negative impacts on morale and motivation, the research suggests. Such rules could also drive a wedge between the leaders making these rules and their support staff.

According to Agence France-Presse, Yehuda Baruch -- professor of management at the University of East Anglia in England -- hopes that "this study will serve not only to acknowledge the part that swearing plays in our work and our lives, but also to indicate that leaders sometimes need to think differently and be open to intriguing ideas ... the challenge [for managers] is to master the art of knowing when to turn a blind eye to communication that does not meet their own standards."

The full contents of the study -- Swearing at work and permissive leadership culture: when anti-social becomes social and incivility is acceptable -- is printed in the latest issue of the Leadership and Organizational Development Journal. Seek out a copy if you are interested in further details. Frankly, I don't give a damn.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

The New York Times' Career Coach takes a look at online gaming in the workplace. A recent survey indicates that 24% of employees admit to playing computer games in the workplace -- a statistic that may leave a lot of managers none too pleased.

Somewhat surprisingly, employers are mixed in their responses to online gaming. Some have chosen to block all gaming sites, while others have only blocked a few. Many have no clear policy, and some even believe it can be a valid way for workers to recharge their batteries, provided that it takes place in moderation.

Depending on what they're playing, I would argue that an occasional break for a computer game could be very productive -- certainly more so than office gossip around the water cooler. Remember, Warren Buffett has said that he spends roughly 10% of his productive hours playing bridge -- often online, sometimes with Bill Gates. Given that these are the two richest men we have, it's safe to say that their gaming hasn't hindered their productivity too much.

The latest generation of workers grew up on video games, and I suspect that gaming will only become more widespread, and more acceptable, within the office environment.

A piece in today's Wall Street Journal takes a look at the growing popularity of instant messaging as a means of communication at work. As the Journal puts it, "Instant messaging is invading and changing the workplace. Employees started to sneak instant messaging into the office in the late 1990s, but now more companies are endorsing it. Faster and more casual than email, instant messaging can foster broader collaboration among employees even as it further blurs the boundaries between work and life."

Those of us who work for BloggingStocks are in constant communication via AOL Instant Messenger (Full Disclosure: BloggingStocks is owned by AOL): We discuss story ideas, the markets, and chat. Instant messaging has built a sense of camaraderie and closeness among people working thousands of miles apart that frankly never would have developed through more traditional lines of communication.

Several experts quoted in the piece predict that instant messaging at work will grow rapidly in popularity: Currently about 1/3 of workers IM at work, often without the knowledge of their bosses, but one expert believes that it will become the dominant method of communication in the workplace.

As well it should.