by Leigh Goessl

Created on: August 07, 2009

Office gossip has a tendency to cause strife in the workplace. People who aren't careful may find themselves amidst a sea of gossip. This can cause irrevocable damage to one's personal or professional life.

Once getting actively involved in the rumor mill is often hard to pull away from the perpetrators of gossip. The best way to avoid getting caught up in workplace gossip is to stay clear of it in the first place.

If you're starting a new job and want to avoid being caught up in the messes that can be created by office gossip, it is a good idea to know what kinds of signs to look for in people who tend to thrive in spreading stories around the workplace.

After you can identify who they are, you can make a concentrated effort to be careful when dealing with the office gossip. There are definitive signs you can look for to help you pinpoint when you are working with a person inclined to engage in gossip. Here are a few things to look out for:

*Attention Seeking

The office gossip will likely say most anything to draw attention. They present information which tends to undermine others while attempting to make themselves the center of conversation. They often perceive that if they tell a good story, people will rally around them and give them undivided attention.

This may be due to low self-esteem and the need to put others down in order to boost and/or soothe their own egos. Either way, if someone is actively looking to spread any kind of story which draws attention, this is someone you want to watch your back with.

*Backstabbing

If your colleague is talking on and on about someone else, chances are they're already, or will soon be, doing it to you behind your back too. Definitive signs of being two-faced include smiling to someone's face and then bad-talking or making gestures or rolling eyes behind their back.

If you see someone exhibiting these signals, it is a strong sign something is wrong and you want to be extremely careful around this kind of person at work. A person who shows signs of being two-faced is one to avoid. They are typically pretty savvy and have a way of attracting everyone to entrust them with information.

You don't want to find yourself the center of the next juicy story going around the office, so watch what you say about yourself or anyone else around the backstabber. They pretend to be a friend while underneath that cloak of comradeship, they are truly a foe.

*Excessively Interested in Personal Lives

A co-worker who has significantly

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