by Mwandi M.

Created on: December 16, 2009   Last Updated: December 17, 2009

Are you familiar with “Bowling for Soup?”  They have this track called “High school never ends.”  The lyrics of the first part of the chorus go as follows;  “The whole damned world is just as obsessed |with who's the best dressed and who's having sex | who's got the money, who gets the honeys | who's kinda cute and who's just a mess.”  Sounds vaguely familiar?  Welcome to office life.  Not much different from high school life, except there are no bells to indicate work time and lunch time, you get to wear home clothes all the time and the people there can be a lot more vicious.

One of my good friends, returning from her studies abroad started work as in intern in the law office.  As she sat on the floor behind her desk during lunch to steal a few secret moments with her novel, two established ladies within the law firm entered the office to have a bit of a gossip.  The topic of the conversation was the new intern and they promptly proceeded to slander her; “she must be the boss’s new hoochie mama, what does she even do here?” “I don’t know.  Did you see what she was wearing?  People don’t wear such things in an office environment.”      

The slander continued.  Pleased with themselves at having reduced the new intern’s possible reason of recruitment to her physical attributes, the two ladies exited the room; unaware that the intern in question who sat on the floor behind her desk had heard the whole conversation.  Moments later, one of the IT lads came in to the office to check her computer.  Startled he found her in the corner and exclaimed rather loudly at her presence.  One of the gossipers poked her head, confirmed that the intern had been there the whole time and sheepishly withdrew.   

Needless to say, out of embarrassment or misplaced pride, the two ladies never spoke to the intern again.  It’s unlikely that they stopped speaking about her, and it’s possible they were more careful to ensure absolutely no one was overhearing their conversation.  However, the damage they have done to their own credibility and a decent working relationship with the intern is quite substantial.  Additionally, whatever the motives and end goal for the gossip and slander in the first place, are probably suspect and are not to the benefit of anyone. 

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>