Leadership Skills in the Workplace

Maintaining Gains Made

LEADERSHIP BRIEFS

14 Workplace Gossip

Objective

Reduce the negative effects gossip and rumor in the workplace

Lesson

How do you really feel about gossip? Does being “in the know” about what may (or may not)be going on at work make you feel important? Does it give you a sense of power to have the entire scoop? Do you feel the urge to seek out these kinds of tidbits in your department or your company?

If you are in a supervisory or management position, and rumor and gossip are part of your life at work, you probably need to think about what that’s doing to your career. This tendency to enjoy hearing and spreading gossip is hurting you, and you may want to think about that.

If you love hearing gossip but seldom pass it on, you may justify this to yourself by saying, “but I never spread it.” Even so, the fact that you tolerate this behavior and allow yourself to listen to gossip from others promotes a certain culture within your department or unit of the organization.

Your employees know that you will not only allow them to say these things, but that you will even enjoy listening to it yourself. If it pleases the boss, well, then, let’s do more of it! So the gossip continues.

When you participate in a conversation based on gossip, you diminish your own credibility. People no longer see you as completely trustworthy.

In the human mind, if someone is listening to our speculations about a co-worker, the listener evidently agrees with us. Moreover, he or she can’t really be trusted with sensitive information. When you get to the point that you are not completely trusted with confidential information, then you lose your effectiveness as a supervisor.

Learn to be sensitive to when a conversation is crossing the line to “gossip.” It is a conversation when it is information only: “Hey, did you hear Sally got the new job? It’s quite a promotion.” But it crosses the line to gossip when you add, “She has been awfully friendly with Bob, you know, and there was probably something going on behind the scenes there. Why else would she have gotten that job?”

Most of the time, when we are talking about someone who is not present to tell their side of the story, we are engaging in gossip.

When you are giving information, this is acceptable and expected. When you start speculating on “why” something is the way it is, it becomes gossip and rumor and quickly has the power to be highly hurtful and even de-rail someone’s career, like YOURS.

Idle talk comes back to haunt you. You are a professional, and professionals need to be one level above the fray.

When you encounter a group of employees gossiping, don’t participate. Don’t even tolerate it. Advise them to stop, by saying something like, “You know it’s not good to be spreading that kind of stuff because we don’t know all the details (reasons), and it’s not really any of our business.” Then, you can quickly change the subject to something else more positive or business-related.

When you do this consistently, your employees will get the idea that gossip is not acceptable. They may still engage in gossip from time to time, but if you are modeling and demonstrating another way to handle information and making it clear gossip is not acceptable, the level of gossip and rumor will gradually diminish.

The workplace becomes less toxic and more productive.

Questions for Group Discussion

1. To what degree is gossip a problem in my department?
   
   
2. What one example do I remember when gossip or rumor got really out of hand and ended up causing damage?

Suggested Activity

1. What is one the thing I can do to reduce gossip in my area?