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Confidentiality and trust among office personnel are now management's biggest challenge. Office gossip not only undermines the integrity of the person targeted, but reflects upon the personality of the person who is passing on the source of information. Office gossip is human nature. It becomes gossip when a discussion is held between two or more persons about someone outside the discussion group. The outsider may feel powerless to defend themself about any accusations made and is why office gossip can become so troublesome for management. Like feathers cast into the wind, once rumor, speculation, inuendo or false statements are disbursed, the statements are impossible to recapture or destroy. Even a false belief once impressed upon the mind of others is difficult to unseat because thoughts are so allusive and intangible.

How does office gossip destroy a company's bottom line? It can ruin trust between office peers and crush creativity when peers feel that their confidentiality has been compromised. This causes workers to be less apt to share their ideas and innovative designs freely among others because of fear of rejection, ridicule or flat-out theft of intellectual property. Higher level managers may feel the need to pull back on delegation of authority or less apt to give out information which might otherwise be useful to accomplish financial goals. When coworkers are allowed to freely gossip without impunity among themselves, it may not only cause emotional turmoil between themselves which slows down production time, but may even lead to physical and stress-related illnesses such as anxiety, heart conditions, headaches and even exacerbation of allergies.

How can management avoid office gossip traps?

l. Create an open water-cooler environment. Coworkers are less apt to participate in derogatory discussions when they know that their conversatons can be overheard and monitored by those around them. You cannot prevent coworkers from meeting over the water cooler and discussing the lives of their coworkers, but you can control the environment in which they do.

2. Create a forum for open discussion in regular staff meetings. Schedule a time when coworkers know they can air their differences, dispute false information, bring to the table new information which is imperative for management to know and which the coworkers understand will be held at regular time intervals in a safe and comfortable environment.

3. Create an on-line discussion board or suggestion box which

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