Destination Success: Gossip acts as deadly virus on office morale

Dishing. Secrets. Whispers. Rumors. Gossip. They are all part of the contagion that infects a business and can bring it down in big and small ways.

When I was working as a publishing representative in southern California, I was in a district of nine sales reps and a manager. One of the reps lived for gossip. Her own life was rather empty, so she fed off the misfortunes, foibles and mistakes of others.

Confidentiality was a word that was not in her vocabulary. If she didn't hear something that was true, she made something up. The sad part was that she didn't know she was the Typhoid Mary of gossip.

Someone recently e-mailed me the phrase: |quot|I don't just have stress, I'm a carrier.|quot| Gossips are carriers of stress, unhappiness, discomfort, bad public relations and negativity.

We see the effects of gossip on a macro scale when rumors swirl around the markets and stocks either rise or plummet. On a micro level, gossip can hurt.

To extricate your organization from the gossip gulch, remember these truths:

Gossip is the seed of conflict. Cindy Hinds, the director of customized training at Ozarks Technical Community College, fields requests for all kinds of classes to be taught at businesses. One of the most frequently requested covers overcoming conflict in the workplace. Gossip is part of the curriculum. |quot|There is nothing that will demoralize a workplace faster than untrue statements, such as in gossip,|quot| Hinds said.

Gossip undermines company image. |quot|It undermines trust, image and credibility,|quot| said Rosa Archibald, principal of ACR Communication, a full-service marketing communications company. Archibald relates the negative aspect of gossip in public relations.

|quot|Public relations really refers to the people a business already touches. The actions and attitudes of these groups influence our company. They may be either internal or external,|quot| she said. Archibald cites the example of someone who comes into a reception area and hears employees speaking about another client. The prospective customer will then feel he will be talked about, as well.

Keeping busy is a strong antidote against gossip. |quot|I feel that if you're busy enough and you are doing your job, you won't have time to gossip,|quot| said Roxanne Amundsen, senior vice president with Ozark Bank. Sure, gossip can take place over lunch, but it seems to mushroom out of control in the working environment.

Use facts to stamp out gossip. |quot|Gossip starts when people don't have the facts so they make up their own. It is their own conjecture. It is often a reflection of their worst fears,|quot| said Hinds. She added that if a manager becomes aware of gossip or a rumor about the company, the manager should arm himself with facts and present them as soon as possible.

Rumors are a form of gossip. They don't just go away. They must be addressed quickly, surgically and honestly. If not, they will grow and destroy morale.

Lead by example to discourage gossip. Amundsen said she believes |quot|the burden falls on upper management to create an example. They should not participate in any way. It behooves everyone to stop it at themselves and not further it in any way. Gossip perpetuates itself.|quot|

At one point, I worked for a woman who was a gossip. She did not gossip with subordinates, but she had long lunches with her fellow managers and upper management. She spread gossip upward in the company. We felt as though we worked for a spy, as she often took minor incidents and magnified them as she passed them along. It created an attitude of distrust and fear.

Gossip can be kept under control through proper training. Certain kinds of gossip are more difficult to control than others. If someone wants to talk about someone's divorce, it is very hard to eradicate.

Business gossip, however, is another matter. It can and should be nipped in the bud. Inspiring an attitude of business confidentiality should be done at initial training. Amundsen gives the example of banking. Due to the nature of the business, employees can never discuss what happened at work. This would also hold true for law, medicine, accounting, you name it. An accountant might know that a company is about to go into bankruptcy, but she can't say a word. You might get wind of a layoff as a vendor. Again, you must keep silent.

Gossip is a disease that spreads from cubicle to cubicle like an emotional virus. Like a virus, it is deadly. The only way to cure the disease is to shine the light of truth upon it.

(Sinara Stull O'Donnell is a writer and professional speaker in the career arena through her company Sinara Speaks.)