by Patrick Sills

Created on: October 30, 2008

When determining who is the worse co-worker: the tattletale or the gossip, one must remember that in many situations, this individual can be one and the same. When someone gossips about another employee, it is often negative. Therefore, as soon as the person being talked about does something outside the boundaries of company policy, the gossiper will oftentimes run to a supervisor, eager to report the infraction.

At other workplace settings, there are the gossipers and then there are the tattletales. I've had many different jobs over the past 31 years since I graduated from high school. For several of those years, I was in the optical business. This field largely consists of female workers. Let me tell you this: women can gossip. At one place it seemed as though my co-workers' mission in life was to talk about whoever was not there on a particular day. For all I know, I was probably talked about on my days off as well. I didn't let this bother me. I had nothing to hide nor did I really care what someone thought of my personal life. Likewise, I wasn't interested in the personal lives of others. If someone was having marital problems or cheating on her spouse, I didn't care. If Employee A disliked Employee B, it made no difference to me. I tried to get along with everybody. Whether or not Employee C went out to the bars every night and slept with strangers was of no relevance to me. Personal lives were just that: personal. As long as I could work effectively with others, what they did outside of the job was their business. What I did outside of work was my business.

However, on my current job that I've held for 3 years, the ratio of male and female workers is about the same. As a result, I've since learned that men can gossip just as much as any woman ever could. I still attempt to keep out of other workers' personal lives as I always have, but the occupation I now hold has the uncanny ability to draw; shall we say, less-than-desirable people. Many have spent time in jail. A few have been to prison. If you are familar with the terms, "Dirtballs" and "Trailer Trash," you'll get the picture. The gossip runs rampant, and while personal lives are personal, I have to admit that knowing that I work with ex-cons in some cases is a bit unsettling.

Despite all of this, the majority of my present co-workers fall into the gossiper category. However, there are a few who are definitely tattletales, and they are far more annoying. A job such as mine has sets of rules and policies just as any other, but many of us don't go "by the book."

We find easier and more efficient ways to accomplish our tasks, and I will plead guilty to this, too. Fortunately, the supervisors are quite lenient (unless the bigwigs in suits are around, that is.....). Yet there are always the brown-nosed tattletales waiting in the wings to run to the supervisors as soon as they see a policy violation. In addition, you have to be very careful what you say around these people. It's as though they are deliberately planted to report any activity deemed incompatible with the employee handbook. However, these people are not plants; but rather insecure individuals who try to put themselves on a pedestal. Some may even have aspirations of being promoted to a higher position. They will step on anybody to get to the top.

Gossipers? I can handle them. But in these days of a volatile, uncertain economy, the last thing any of us needs on the job is a tattletale.

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