by Sati Malik

Created on: November 12, 2008   Last Updated: December 08, 2008

Avoiding Gossip Traps: A Two-Pronged Approach

As a modus operandi of business lunches, breakrooms, water coolers, and other informal office settings, gossip is notoriously hard to pin down. It usually involves conversation within a closed circle of sympathetic people. Therefore, tracking its flow can be akin to rolling back a clandestine network of terrorist sleeper cells.

And make no mistake, gossip can-in its worst manifestations-have the effect of a verbal dirty bomb. Just ask the town of Hooksett, N.H. where, in 2007, four city employees were fired for discussing a relationship between two co-workers. The case garnered national attention and lawsuits at public expense. Furthermore, utilizing today's internet, gossip can quickly go global, as Republican VP Candidate-and apparent dress splurger-Sarah Palin recently found out. Then there are the economic implications, for instance, when speculation on Apple CEO Steve Jobs' health caused a mini-panic last summer among company shareholders. In these times of lay-offs and sensitive stock valuation loose lips can definitely sink ships.

Regardless of its immediate effects unchecked gossiping can be as expensive to an employer as other non-work-related indulgences such as internet shopping and fantasy football. A 2002 survey conducted by the business communications company Equisys found that the average employee in the U.S. spends 65 hours a year gossiping.

Complicating matters, gossip can be beneficial. According to many social scientists like Drs. Hebert Strean of Rutgers University and Robin Dunbar of the University of Liverpool gossip can enhance groups by relieving stress, engendering camaraderie and spreading norms. Therefore, I don't suggest that gossip be banned from the workplace all together, as CEO Sam Chapman to Empower Public Relations did last year.

Instead, gossip should be controlled. In praxis, I suggest managers promote two types of measures in order to control gossip:

- Interpersonal measures

- Organizational measures

Interpersonal measures include the following:

Establish a Reputation as a Straight Talker

In any organization, personality matters. The straight talker has a permanent calling card in the rolodex of fabled American corporate profiles. Think of Andrew Carnegie, Howard Hughes and Ted Turner. According to Career Coaches Kate Ludeman and Eddie Erlandson he is likely to be the "Alpha" parked in the corner office (see "Coaching the Alpha Male" by Kate Ludeman and Eddie Erlandson, Havard Business

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