Communication is necessary when it comes to building strong bonds among team members. It can also be greatly helpful for collaborative tasks. However, this harmless communication if turned into excessive workplace gossiping, can spread negativity really fast in the organization. It eventually hampers the productivity of the employees and decreases their job satisfaction.
So What is Workplace Gossip?
Workplace gossip can be defined as casual conversations between coworkers. The information that is exchanged in these conversations is typically private and sensitive. When you are sharing your personal experience or information with your co-worker or supervisor, it is called sharing. But when you are repeating what others have told you or sharing what you came to know about others, with the intent of entertaining, it becomes gossip.
What Can be the Consequences?
When it comes to gossiping, the thing that matters most is the intention. If your coworkers are gossiping about your private matters intending to entertain themselves it comes with negative consequences. When gossip is unwanted in the workplace, it can leave workers and employees feeling unsupported. It may make them feel their trust has been breached, lowering their comfort in the workplace.
6 Quick and Effective Tips which Can Help You Manage This Negativity at the Workplace:
- Observe - When you overhear workplace gossip, the first step is to observe the intention, if the conversation is positive with a positive intention, then there is no need to take further action. But when it is a negative conversation with a harmful intention or baseless rumors you should access it. You can inform your supervisor about it and if you feel the comments are discriminatory, you can also contact HR.
- Be Busy, Be Productive - The people who gossip are called gossip mongers and they thrive off of attention. When you are busy, delving into work in the workplace you will be busy, therefore your entire attention will be on your work and you will not find any more attention to give to these rumors and gossip.
- Do Not Participate - If anyone passes a “juicy story” to you, do not pass it around. Let the gossip stop with you. When something negative is happening around you, you need to take personal responsibility and act with integrity.
- Learn to Keep Your Private Life Private at Work - When you don't take part in gossiping, there is a great chance that the next victim will be you. So what should you do to avoid this? Do not trust your coworkers. Let your private life be private so there are fewer chances to give them ammunition.
- Choose Your Work Friends Wisely - When you spend half of the day with some people it is easy to create bonds with them. It is also natural for friendships to form but when you are at work, the most important thing is professionalism. Certain topics are inappropriate to discuss at the workplace, but if you still choose to share them, be sure that you have built that trust level with your work bestie.
- Act with Integrity and Empathy - When you hear negative gossip about someone, say something nice about them and turn the gossip around. When you are voicing a compliment about the person who is being attacked, it will help stop the conversation there.
Despite following these tips, there might come a time when you still hear something somewhere, and if you feel that’s too much do not be afraid to go to the upper hand.
