How to Deal With Gossip at Work

Gossip is a common workplace communication tactic. Employees and managers alike often participate in mudslinging and closed-door gossip sessions discussing rumors and half-truths about their office colleagues. Whether you are the victim of an attack or like to participate in gossip at work, here’s how to handle the scandal. You can deal with office gossip effectively without damaging your workplace reputation or inciting an office riot.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Determine your gossip at work limit. How often you plan to gossip and with whom will shape your workplace reputation. Management will not likely promote a person who spends their days hanging by the water cooler gossiping.

2. Make an alliance with the office town crier. Every office has one or two individuals who always know the office scoop. Whether you choose to have daily meetings with this person depends entirely on your gossip work limit policy. But alienating the source of office gossip is an unwise decision. Failure to keep your finger on the pulse of side-bar conversations about you or your workplace could be hazardous when playing the deadly game of office politics.

3. Beware of office gossip involving management. Negative talk about your leader, whether true or false, is hazardous to your career growth. Never discuss your manager’s personal relationships or salary with colleagues. Scandalous communication about management can easily be twisted by your enemies into an untruth with you as the source of the rumor.

4. Develop a bullet-proof reputation. Work hard. Play the office game wisely. Develop a solid reputation that will easily repel any lies, office gossip or innuendo. If you find yourself in the midst of gossip at work, your reputation can help you deflect an unforeseen attack from a team of gossip-wielding adversaries.

5. Respond to a gossip attack immediately. If your name is involved in gossip at work, react quickly to the rumor. Take swift action. Respond quickly to the gossip to prevent a potential blemish on your reputation. Think of the best method to address the office rumor without participating directly in the office gossip.