by Shaheen Darr

Created on: February 21, 2009   Last Updated: March 03, 2009

Gossiping is part of human nature and has an element of showing itself when a group of people get together. Depending on individual characters, some may revel in it, while others will choose not to participate and keep their opinions to themselves.

In an office environment, gossip can originate from rumours you hear about work colleagues, this inspires curiosity to find out more. Before you know it, you end up knowing more about someone's background than you intended to know, and the "tea break" has evolved into a "gossip break". Some of the rumours may actually be facts, but others could be snippets heard from others, and before long opinions are formed which can be quite damaging to other people and their reputations.

Only one positive thing can come out of this situation, it gives a manager an opportunity to investigate rumours circulating in the office and find lasting solutions to clarify matters for all concerned. They say there is no smoke without fire, so if you hear office gossip; it might mean there are things happening in the office that requires clarification. Discussing these with other employees might help provide you the answers you are looking for, but to get the facts it is better to ask the person involved directly rather than accepting the opinions of others. This is the only way you can have facts based on validation rather than through the shaky grounds of gossip.

There can be a basis for gossip when someone in the office acts out of character or is a problem for others. Gossiping about them, is a way of letting off steam and talking about your feelings helps to make you feel better and easier to cope with having to work with this individual on a day-to-day basis. Talking to someone trustworthy at work is like counselling, and takes stressful feelings off your chest. As long as it is not hurting anyone, it should not be a problem but a better option is to discuss your feelings with your manager so that he can reprimand or warn the culprit about his anti social behaviour.

A person who performs better in his job can easily become a target for gossip, especially if he has had a promotion or a pay rise. The feelings of insecurity and jealousy that arise on the part of the other employees can make them look for reasons to put this person down or find mistakes to make him appear more human. There will be knowing looks exchanged between employees with eyebrows raised as they suggest reasons underlying the promotion. This is the classic case of malicious

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>