One hallmark of a true team is shared values including mutual honesty, trust and respect. The dangers of workplace gossip hr payroll systems. Gossip is no longer limited to whispered conversations around the water cooler or staff room, but can spread quickly through much larger groups, via email, sms and social media. This study adopts social information theory and social cognitive theory to. That being said, there are some things that employers can do to minimize negative gossiping and rumormonger. Gossip is an emotional cancer in the workplace that eats away at the sense of wellbeing of the individual and the team. Allowing negative workplace gossip to flourish can lead to a culture of distrust and negatively impact productivity, morale, engagement and turnover. Pdf gossip in the workplace and the implications for hr.
Gossip is often a lifelong habit and breaking it can take a great deal of effort. Workplace gossip is present in nearly every type of organization that exists and can be very difficult to avoid or stamp out. Increased anxiety among employees as rumors circulate without clear information as to what is and isnt fact. In the workplace, the quiet, most insidious type of betrayal can come in the form of gossip, speculation or rumour about events or others. False workplace gossip can result in company liability. False workplace gossip can result in company liability by ken hardin in cxo on march 3, 2003, 12.
The danger of workplace gossip careerstone group, llc. Workplace gossip can be very serious, however, if the gossiper has significant power over the recipient, wrote authors nancy kurland and lisa hope pelled in their article. You can manage gossip exactly as you would manage any other negative behavior from an employee in your workplace. Toxic workers michael housman cornerstone ondemand dylan minor kellogg school of management, northwestern university november, 2015 abstract while there has been a strong focus in past research on discovering and developing top performers in the workplace, less attention has been paid to the question of how to manage. However, if people work in a team, it is hardly possible to avoid gossiping. Use a coaching approach, when possible, to help the employee improve his or her behavior. Gossip can be a symptom of a larger, more pervasive problem in the workplace. Gossip is a common phenomenon in the workplace, but yet relatively little is understood about its influence to employees. No matter how its done, gossip decreases productivity in your workplace. If this problem affects the entire office, your employees quickly lose focus on their work.
Such interaction at a work place helps the working process to go faster and forces the employees to share the result and the effort placed at the accomplishments of the tasks that also work as the motivation. Some negative consequences of workplace gossip are. Where gossip rears its ugly head, these shared values are nonexistent. Its also conducted through the free will of employees, and regulating that is very difficult without creating a big brother climate. In addition to distracting employees from their work, gossip can cause problems between coworkers. The gossip file is a very entertaining book with a lot lying and competition. Managers who ignore gossip can destroy a department. This book is about a girl named rachel who visits her dad in florida after he left her mom and her. Healthy work healthy living tip sheet managing gossip in. An important part of management is shutting down negative gossip in the workplace before employees start to distrust each other, which can lead to a breakdown in communication and teamwork. How good managers deal with gossip in the workplace.