🔒101: Employee gossip

The Turkish proverb says, “Who gossips to you will gossip of you.” Workplace gossip can erode employees’ sense of comfort at work and their trust in colleagues with whom they collaborate. It can involve spoken or written conversations, such as email, and involve rumors about other employees, supervisors, or the company itself. Here are some ways to handle it.

Reduce gossip at the source. This happens with transparency; the less fuel gossip is given, the less it can spread. According to Alex Huls in The Hartford blog, “Small Biz Ahead,” gossip can spring up around issues of pay equity, whether or not bonuses are being given, and whether the business is doing well, and why or why not. “If small business owners aren’t open enough about these subjects with employees, they risk leaving room for the wild speculation that gossips thrive upon,” writes Huls.

Gossiping employees should be coached, then disciplined. Gossip is like any other negative workplace behavior, warranting coaching, then progressive discipline with a verbal warning, then written warning, according to TheBalanceCareers.com. “Managers who ignore gossip can destroy a department,” the website notes. “You absolutely should fire an employee who continues gossiping after participating in coaching. One toxic person can drive your good employees out, especially if they see that the behavior is going unaddressed. If the gossip is personal, you must go to the employees in question and make it clear that their coworkers are not an appropriate topic.”

Some gossip should be encouraged - positive gossip. Indeed.com gives examples of what this sounds like, highlighting impressive qualities of colleagues – and spreading it around: "Wow, can you believe how resourceful Rebecca is. That client was probably going to cancel the whole order, and she was able to save the deal,” or, "It's incredible how hard Bob works. He's going through a lot personally, but you would never know it as an outsider. He always manages to get everything done.”