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The Scuttlebutt on Office Gossip
Sometimes the scourge of the workplace, a new study shows that office gossip isn't always worthy of the bad rap it receives. While it can definitely be harmful, other types of gossip can help co-workers bond and transfer important organizational information. Rather than banning gossip, employers should emphasize a culture of respect.
Psst ... Have you heard what that nice Tim Hallett found out when he and two colleagues undertook a study about workplace politics at an urban elementary school? Well, among other juicy tidbits, it appears that workplace gossip sometimes plays a positive role in the social food chain. Hallett and his colleagues, it turns out, are into gossip. Shocking? Not really, considering that he and colleague Donna Eder are sociologists with Indiana University in Bloomington, and Brent Harper is a sociologist with Reading, Pa.-based Albright College. The three recently published a study in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography about the subtleties of gossip's effects in the workplace. The study is a result of their two-year ethnographic research of workplace politics at a Midwestern elementary school where management was in transition. Hallett, Eder and Harper observed teachers, administrators and students at formal and informal meetings, from the teachers' lounge to more formal, teacher-led meetings. In part, their study was a continuation of a previous gossip study that Eder had co-authored, in which Eder studied and diagramed the structure of adolescent gossip in a middle-school cafeteria. Among their findings is that office gossip isn't always worthy of the bad rap it receives, says Hallett. Some offices have tried to place a ban on gossip, but that may be akin to bottling the wind, Hallett and other experts say. While it's not exactly a boon for the workplace, he says gossip can play an important and natural role in our social lives. "Everybody assumes that gossip is negative, and this is often the case," he says. "But people can say very positive things about people when they're not present, and in that way, gossip can be a weapon in which people can undermine each other, but it can also be a gift." Gossip also serves as an informal organization chart, which can help employees understand who the go-to people are in their department. "Everybody knows there's the formal organization chart that tells you who's in what office, but that doesn't tell you who the key movers are and why," he says. "If you're able to look at gossip, and who's being talked about positively and negatively, you can get a sense of those sorts of things." But it's gossip's well-deserved bitter reputation that Hallett and his co-authors also find interesting. "Office gossip is at once savage, but it's also elegant," he says. If, at first, that sounds a bit like dressing a wolf in a tuxedo, consider the nuanced forms that gossip can take in a formal workplace conversation, says Hallett. Some are adept at spinning a web of gossip by using sarcasm, such as derisively complimenting a co-worker on a job well done -- so that if they are challenged on their comment, they can defend themselves and deny the sarcasm. At other times, Hallett says some people have learned how to redirect gossip by gingerly switching the direction of the conversation's flow. "What we saw was that people were using all these nuanced forms of avoidance," says Hallett. "They would subtly switch to another target: 'Well, John was talking to Julia, and I notice that Julia ... .' Well, that takes the attention off of John." Switching to another topic can take gossip off its negative course, he says, but it has to occur as soon as the gossiping begins. Sam Chapman, CEO of Empower Public Relations in Chicago, says the only way to cease tongue-wagging in the office is to ban it entirely and to reinforce that ban by bringing potential gossip into the light of day. He recently published a book, entitled The No-Gossip Zone, which offers advice on ways to quash harsh gossip and increase office productivity. Chapman's no-gossip zone techniques have worked wonders in his own 20-person firm, he says. "In my firm, we have agreed to face each other with our truths, or to keep it to ourselves, rather than to say it behind someone's back," says Chapman. In a twist on that old chestnut about keeping your mouth shut if you don't have anything good to say about someone, Chapman says his policy is that "if you don't have something good to say about someone, you'd better say it to their face, or don't say anything." He instituted his no-gossip-zone policy a little over two years ago after it appeared to him that too much time and productivity was lost while employees dished the dirt. He wanted his employees to be busy, rather than busybodies, and if there were negative sentiments about others' work, Chapman says he wanted them to be aired publicly, rather than be fodder for gossip. "It's a management tool for me," he says. "Be honest with people. Telling them the truth rather than [talking] behind their back is a great management tool. I only want to keep people who are doing a good job, so we might as well all be honest about it, and give the feedback." Hallett says that creating a no-gossip zone in the workplace is a bit like putting out a fire with gasoline. "I would think that the surest way to get people to gossip would be to implement a policy that says, 'No gossip,' " he says. "Gossip is a ubiquitous feature of life." Anne Lindberg, a research analyst based in the St. Petersburg, Fla., office of the Institute for Corporate Productivity, says it's easy to understand why employers would like to create a no-gossip zone. "Depending on what was said and how it was said, it can open up an employer to liability," she says. A range of ills can befall an employer if a workplace becomes rife with gossip, she says, such as bullying, discrimination and a hostile work environment. "Even if it doesn't go that far, people can start distrusting each other," she says. But Lindberg says she has doubts about the effectiveness of creating a no-gossip environment in the workplace, partly because gossip does serve a purpose. "I think it can be very beneficial to help people bond, to help people get to know each other as human beings," she says. "And, in a culture where management may not be very forthcoming with information, it's kind of the only way you get information." In organizations that aren't transparent in management and operations, says Lindberg, gossip will fill that void. Rather than try to tamp down gossip in the workplace, Lindberg suggests that employers emphasize a culture of mutual respect among all employees, and zero tolerance for disrespect. She also recommends that employers "empower people" to challenge gossip in the workplace. "So, if you hear someone gossiping about you, you have to feel comfortable enough to go to them and say, 'stop that,' and if that doesn't work, then go to HR or a manager," she says. Hallett says he hopes that technique of challenging gossip is one of the benefits that employers can take away from his study, in addition to being able to identify the role that gossip plays in an organization and how to manage its subtle attacks. "These are all the skills that I hope people would be able to learn by reading this dense, academic paper," he laughs.
November 13, 2009 Copyright 2009© LRP Publications |
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