"Why Do Colleagues Complain About Each Other?"

I ask the question that's been on my mind lately. Simply because the more I venture out into the street to take a lovely walk by the sea, I constantly see people complaining about the world. And so I wanted to turn today's article towards colleagues at work.

Some folks call it gossiping, which for most of us can take many forms and many definitions. I wouldn't like to gossip about my colleagues at work; however, I know the reality is that we all engage in some form of talking about another colleague.

I guess we just can't help ourselves about putting our fellow colleagues down. A shame indeed we can't be brutally honest with each other. Our lives could depend on this very notion if we don't start paying attention to how we act in the workplace.

Gosh, now that I make this statement, I feel that I am being somewhat of a hypocrite as I have for so long talked about my colleagues at work, good and bad. But, I guess that is the problem right there. Deciding what constitutes being bad about a colleague at work.

Sam: "I can't believe what James did last week."

Chris: "I know she left all those files out for us to sort out."

Sam: "What a beep."

Yes, it isn't a surprise that we often do indeed swear about our colleagues when we feel they have not pulled their weight or done something wrong. And the worst thing of it all is when you find out that a colleague really likes you and looks up to you. A strange moment indeed.

However, more often than not, I would argue that the biggest upset we have in business today in terms of management and staff performance is jealousy.

We simply can't help being jealous that someone younger than us got promoted faster and we have to do what they say. Or the fact that we actually feel threatened as a supervisor because the new guy comes from a higher status background from another industry. This is an interesting discussion as I faced this situation recently where my line manager started to man-manage me. I felt he did not like the fact I was a previous teacher and had a lot of people training. Now I could have been wrong; however, I feel when you get to my level of experience and expertise, you know when something is wrong.

Jealousy is probably the biggest killer of organizational culture and staff morale today.

When you combine jealousy with talking about colleagues, you get to a whole new level of team dynamics. I have been there a thousand times, it seems.

When will we learn, and how will we learn to be nice to each other instead of talking about each other?

It seems though, even in the smallest business, we get worse when talking about colleagues behind their back. I left my last firm due to ill-health, yet I know a month or two before I gave my notice in, I felt that the morale dropped as I heard more and more stories about colleagues.

I felt that I was experiencing a new ill-fed culture or different workplace altogether.

Well, I am being awfully polite to myself as yes, I was gossiping.

At 44 years old, almost with all the years of experience in the world of work, I wonder, why do colleagues complain about each other?

I guess we can't help it!

What do you think?