How Organisations Can Tackle Office Gossip

“Do you know about Tim and Sarah?”, “I must tell what I heard about poor Jane…”

Very few workplaces haven’t yet been contaiminated by his plague. Falling in the trap of office gossip is all too easy, even for people who are not the direct perpetrator, but just naïve enough to listen.

Not all gossip is malicious and some is in fact relatively benign: anyone enjoys a good banter and innocent gossip can usually strenghten co-workers bond by creating a certain sense of comradeship.

Unfortunately the typical gossip is purely destructive, can easily go out of control and its effects can be devasting, not only on the victim but on the entire work environment. Telltale can hugely affect worker’s morale and turn unexpected risks on complaisant management.

Samuel Greenhard in his article “Gossip Poisons Business: HR Can Stop It”, writes some lucid words: “When the gossip mill begins to grind people up and ruin their reputations, there is both cause for concern and a real need for the human resources professional to step in. When left to fester, gossip can not only cause deep personal pain but also lead to turnover, conflict, and lawsuits”.

GOSSIP AND ITS CAUSES

Office gossip is generally about alleged dating between management and employees, or who’s is going to get fired, promoted or moved down the corporate ladder.

No matter what the excuse is (romance, illness, promotion, cheating?), gossip is always designed to slander or defame an individual, often for personal or political gratification.

Susan Dunn, expert author on management and marketing coach writes: “Particularly malicious gossip is used for personal or political gain within the organization. Any form can open management up to significant liability because employees who perceive themselves in a hostile environment can go on to assume they’re being discriminated against”.

Gossip often thrives on rivalry and boredom – “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop”- or it can be encouraged by a frustrating lack of information about company events.

Annette Simmons, president of Group Process Consulting and author of “A Safe Place for Dangerous Truths: Using Dialogue to Overcome Fear and Distrust at Work(Amacom,1999)” writes that “when people aren’t fully engaged in work, it creates a vacuum. And when they don’t know what’s going on, especially regarding promotions and layoffs, they begin to speculate”. She also notes that men often use gossip as a form of political control, while women employ it to make themselves look and feel important.

THE ADVENT OF E-GOSSIP

Gossip is nothing new. It’s wired into the human nature. It has always existed and always will. But the internet has opened up a completely new dimension to gossip. A new world of (disastrous) possibilities.

We witnessed the passage from the traditional one-to-one exchange (be it face-to-face, by phone or letter) to the potential one-to-hundred instant email sent to a list of recipients in one single click. What in the old days was a rumour taking weeks to develop, can now be spreaded exponentially in minutes with often tragic results.

But it’s not all bad. Lynn Hamilton, who teaches management communication at the MeIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia, explains how the emails can provide a real insight into the nature of relationships between coworkers. Moreover, unlike the spoken word, email correspondence represents a far more “trackable” mean of communication; it’s easily documented and in this sense it allows human resources and IT management to study and implement policies to counteract the e-gossiping.

WHAT ORGANISATIONS CAN DO

1) Building the foundations of a respectful community of workers. If an organization knows that ignorance, boredom and cut-throats competition are indisputable feeding of all gossip, it can put the wild cat on a diet. It can create a culture which is supportive and fair rather than overtly competitive. It should keep employees well informed on company’s directives, potential promotions and all essential actions instead of acting like a secret agent. It should encourage hard work through promotions and incentives with an eye to building team work’s spirit and prolific cooperation between colleagues.

2) Putting in place a written policy against gossip. The policy should describe appropriate behavior and actions at work, promoting relation based on ethics, professionalism and respect between employees. Rules and punitive measures should be clearly outlined and the document should be displayed where workers can see it.

3) Running regular workshops to educate workers and raise awareness. Dan Bobinski – the President and CEO of Leader Development Inc., an organization providing human resource training and development to businesses – explains that “how an organization deals with gossip can often mean the difference between growing and thriving, or disintegrating from within”.He also adds that “by openly bringing the issue to the attention of everyone in the office, gossipers are more likely to feel the peer pressure and think twice before opening their mouth”.

4) Counseling should be available for both victim and instigator. The victim needs obvious emotional support, but the gossiper needs advice too.As Bobinski points out “It is vitally important that we don’t just tell people what not to do. We must give them positive, constructive alternatives to choose instead of the gossip”.

5) Rumors must be dealt with immediately and with a firm hand. More often than not the management is responsible as much as the gossiper by no dealing with the issue, by looking the other way or worse still by engaging in the gossip themselves.

Rebecca Gushue, HR generalist and compensation specialist at GENEX Services, Inc., has dealed with hundreds of cases and she notes that “management often opens itself up to significant liability by not dealing with the problem”. An investigator should inspect the matter if necessary and the gossiper should be confronted directly.

There is no point in having a written policy of “respect and dignity for every employee” if nothing or little is done in case of transgression. A lack of action or a simple delay would hinder all benefits of the process and irreversibly damage the policy’s credibility.