A tribunal judge remarked that use of the f-word was "particularly common in the North" while explaining why a firm had been unfair to sack a worker for swearing.
Delivery driver Rob Ogden was fired from his job at wholesaler Booker Ltd in Oldham after swearing at a colleague.
But judge Jetinder Shergill said swearing was so widespread that Mr Ogden, who had worked there for seven years, had been made an unfair example of.
He said that while such language should not be used in the workplace it is a "common everyday experience, particularly in the North".