How to Deal With Gossipy Colleagues

Office gossip can hurt morale and productivity.

Office gossip involves employees spreading rumors about their colleagues, managers, customers and others. Gossip can kill potential, productivity and eventually profitability. Employees may spend more time collecting and reacting to gossip than worrying about customers and competitors. Dealing effectively with gossipy colleagues can improve your own productivity and create a better work environment for everybody.

Instructions

1. Make honest and open communications part of the organizational culture. In an open environment, employees might feel less compelled to gossip about their colleagues.This shift toward directness takes time because it requires almost universal acceptance, entrepreneur Dan Pallotta writes.

2. Lead by example. If you want your colleagues or employees to stop spreading rumors and innuendo, stop doing it yourself. You cannot expect to eliminate office gossip just by publishing an anti-gossip policy document. Human resources and other managers may set these policies, but they really have no way of enforcing them. Effective policies require employees to decide independently to alter their behavior and stop engaging in gossip.

3. Ask gossipy a colleague to stop his behavior. If you are not very familiar with him, ask one of his close friends to communicate the message. This should work in most cases, especially if you explain how this person would feel if others were spreading rumors about him.

4. Change the conversation when a colleague starts gossiping. Talk about an upcoming company event or a specific work-related issue. If the colleague persists, tell her you are not interested in continuing the conversation. If the gossip is in the form of a complaint, ask her what she plans to do about it. In other words, turn the conversation into something meaningful and positive.

5. Walk away from conversations if changing the topic does not work. In a January 2010 Forbes article, columnist Bonnie Rochman suggests that a simple "I have to get back to work" remark might be enough to excuse yourself from the conversation.

6. Encourage your supervisor to assign more work to gossipy coworkers. In an April 2004 Inc. article, columnist Nadine Heintz suggests that a department manager should reassess a gossipy employee's workload because he clearly has too much free time if he is spreading rumors around the office. Find ways to keep him busy with work that benefits the company.

7. Distinguish between personal and business gossip. The former is often harmful, but the latter could be beneficial. For example, you could pick up useful tidbits about competitors that might help you in developing a business plan or close a sale.

Tips & Warnings

• Do not gossip by email because your company may be monitoring employee correspondence.

References

• Harvard Business Review; Gossip Kills Possibility; Dan Pallotta; October 2010
• Inc.; Most Employees Peeved by Workplace Gossip; Tamara Schweitzer; November 2007
• Forbes; Gossip Management 101; Bonnie Rochman; January 2010
• Inc.; Miss Management: Office Gossip; Nadine Heintz; August 2004
• Forbes; Make Office Gossip Work for You; Grant Michelson; May 2011