Comments on: How Do I Stop Office Gossip?

By: Joseph Grenny

Joseph Grenny — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:22:06 +0000

You make a fair point. I read the original note as referring to personal or potentially slanderous comments not as "newsy" kinds of things. If it were the latter, then I would wholeheartedly agree that the rumor mill is an inevitable communication channel in any organiztion. I also believe that good leadership quenches the need for so much the flow through this channel. So in a way the vitality of the rumor mill is a negative measure of leadership. My two bits! @J.A.

By: Dorothy

Dorothy — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:14:22 +0000

When I worked at another institution, the President invited staff (13,000) to email rumors to the office of the President. Then one of his staff responded to a number of them on the web site. It was called Rumors and Trumors. It dispursed a lot of rumors. It confirmed and clarified those that were true.

By: Grizzly Bear Mom

Grizzly Bear Mom — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:05:08 +0000

I’m not sure if you are talking about politics, tribalism, harassment & infighting, but I nip those in the bud.
1. First it is a waste of time and energy that should be invested in improving the organization.
2. Second it divides people.
3. Third it perpetuates fear and mistrust.
4. This means having the guts to tell people the truth. Avoiding the truth leads to problems festering. Encourage openness, avoiding being autocratic, inflexible and unresponsive. Practice tough love. When an employee carries a tale about another into my office I ask “What happened when you discussed this with her?” Normally they have always left my office. If they try it a second time I ask “Do we need to call her in here?” To date this has stopped those who want to bad mouth their colleagues to me.

I learned this from Stephen Covey who wrote that when he was bad mouthing another manager, his boss called the man in to the conversation. No one says the same things in another’s presence that they would behind their back. If there is no reward for negative behavior it may stop.

By: Steve Andersen

Steve Andersen — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:28:11 +0000

I have become convinced that rumors in the workplace come in a close second to a lack of crucial confrontations when it comes to things that negatively impact productivity and the bottom line.

One of my personal expectations (which I advertise) for everyone who works at my location is that I expect us all to be loyal to our co-workers, particularly when the co-worker is absent. The concept of “loyalty to the absent” is aspirational, but phrasing it this ways helps to illustrate its importance.

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, “The cruelest lies are often told in silence.” This is so true. I read somewhere else (maybe in Crucial Confrontations) this characterization: when someone is attacked in a conversation, the listeners can join the mugging with merely a nod.

I believe that Winston Churchill put it best when he said: “By swallowing evil words unsaid, no one has ever harmed his stomach.”

Thanks for your high quality and practical newsletter. I use it regularly with my senior staff to illustrate best practices and keep us on a crucial conversation path.

CAPT Steve Andersen, USCG

By: Laurie Butterfield

Laurie Butterfield — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:49:41 +0000

Regarding office gossip, I have another perspective that I have seen occuring at my company. I believe gossip often occurs when there is a lack of open communication. When there is a vacuum, it is filled by something. When employees do not understand why certain actions are taken by the company, especially those perceived to be negative, employees make up their own stories that reflect their own perspectives and biases. These stories grow and morph, and eventually may become “company legends” that have no actual basis in truth. I believe company management, with direction from their HR and legal departments, would be better served by communicating more so the vacuums do not occur. Lack of communication is nearly always on the list of “company weaknesses” for most cmployees; I think it is rare to see “over-communicating” considered a negative company trait.

By: Steve W

Steve W — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:47:27 +0000

First, let me say I am guilty sometimes of not seeing that I need to communicate more thoroughly.

My comment is that rumors are sometimes the result of a lack of communication. Blaming the spread of information (you were assuming that the information was not true) on workers might be missing an important point. People fill in blanks with their worst fears when they hear news about change. So, as managers we have a special responsibility to be forthright. There are definitely those who take a piece of information and exaggerate or lie about it for their own ends. But I am just asking everyone to take a quick look around to see if they could have handled the situation better with their own communication.

By: J.A.

J.A. — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:46:15 +0000

To add to my previous comment, much of the information passed via the grapevine here is accurate or mostly accurate.

By: J.A.

J.A. — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:42:51 +0000

Totally disagree (assuming this is work-related rumors and not personal stuff). Where I work, much information is passed via the grapevine. A good manager would be on top of it and use it to his/her advantage.