Workplace Gossip: a social glue or a gummy situation?

Gossip is like chewing gum. You engage with it for a while, you enjoy the flavor at first, then it gets tasteless. Now you want to get rid of it and here is where you get creative.

Its fundamental sticky nature can add to other complexities when it comes to the workplace. Unlike gum, you can’t just wrap it in a tissue.., but instead you’ll find yourself stuck with it. As I like to say

“Gossip can be entertaining, until you discover you’re the main attraction”

I grew up in a relatively conservative society where everyone was in everyone’s business, so I can talk for hours on the subject. There was no concept of personal space! At times talking about other people provided a huge entertainment value. This innate curiosity of “other people” manifests itself in different forms, and it is what drives us to be obsessed with social media, poring over other people’s posts for hours.

But Gossip is not all that bad. Over the years, I have found that whisperings carry signals of big happenings around the corner. If you get to this information at the right time, you can utilize it to your benefit in a workplace.

Unexpected Benefits of Gossip in a workplace

“Why is it that some companies are totally ok with their employees openly trashing them, while others hold their image pristine and hardly tolerate any negativity?”

Organizations have their own culture, code of conduct, policies and social norms. We choose to be part of the company because we believe in the vision, we want to contribute to the success of the organization, reach our career aspirations and financial goals. For most of us workplace is our professional playground.

Workplaces are unique in many ways. They are an extremely social environment where people generally talk about each other. Studies show that two-thirds of our conversations are about social relationship or personal experiences. Gossiping is this social glue that shows up as a reflection of curiosity that all humans possess. If you decide "I’m going to stay out of the fray and I’m not going to participate" you might be missing out on potentially valuable information about your organization.

Here are some unexpected benefits of healthy gossip:

• Build stronger bonds: Gossip tends to flow between coworkers who feel friendly towards each other, with a relationship that goes beyond their work duties. They’re more committed to helping and supporting one another. Gossiping is a sign that you trust someone, and by engaging in it, you’re building a social and emotional bond with that person that can serve you in the workplace. When people are aware of each other’s strengths and interests they have a better opportunity to utilize that knowledge to optimize resources within the team.
• Organizational stethoscope: The further away you are from your ICs, communication could have the tendency to get mangled. Gossip can then serve as a health check monitor for managers, providing clues about where it’s headed. For ICs it can shed some light on which projects might be important, who to work with, and how to best spend your time.
• Ease anxiety: Companies often drag their heels in communicating important information to employees. Sometimes they have to wait until the news is official ( all documents signed and legally approved ). Unofficial communication preps you for when the official communication comes out. So that the impact isn’t earth shattering.
• Gossip could reveal future opportunities. If you find out that someone is going to leave the company, that might actually be beneficial information in case you were looking for an opportunity for yourself. That said, don’t just assume what you hear to be the real deal. The facts in the gossip determine whether you can use the information to make reliable decisions or not.

Rumors vs Facts: The Downside

Would you know the difference between a rumor and a fact? If so, how? Casual conversations such as "Did you hear Suzan is leaving the company?" or "Max never finishes his work on time. He is so unreliable!" seem benign but hearing such things about people can change the way you look at them.

The negative consequences of gossip are a bit harsh. When conversation leans towards inducing anger, distrust, judgment or suspicion, they can destroy organizations.

Here are some negative impacts of gossip

• Loss of Productivity & Motivation: When I was working at Apple, there was a rumor about an acquisition to support our group. Hearing that made me feel we were not good enough, that the team was inadequate, that more people had to be added to pick up slack. Our enthusiasm, morale plummeted quickly. When the merger finally happened we turned out to be vital because of our domain knowledge. We also found new opportunities of growth by leading the newly joined team members. In hindsight, our worries were unfounded and I wish we didn’t spend those weeks unhappy.
• Lack of respect and curiosity towards the leadership: Gossip undermines everyone’s efforts. This behavior feeds negativity, spreads needless alarms and can get very destructive for the people involved.
• Toxic culture: Gossip can make the work environment very political. Ingroup-outgroup mentality might set in forcing people to take sides. This could further reduce trust between coworkers. Trust is crucial for the healthy functioning of a team. Trust is very hard to build but can be quick to lose.
• Employee attrition: Top talent, who are fed up with the toxic environment will not stick around.

“Gossip is a double-edged sword, can you sharpen both edges?”

The Solution: Organization’s responsibility

How can organizations have a pulse on the overall well being of the company and their people? How can they stand by their values and yet be respected for their efforts? Dealing with gossip is like solving a puzzle, making sure all the pieces fit in their respective place.

My manager, and Reddit's CTO, Dr. Chris Slowe says, “No one reads the emails, but gossip travels at the speed of light.”

He is right. Ignoring this very fact of life is not going to make gossip go away.

Every organization has a moral obligation towards their employees and customers. This allows them to maintaining the culture of trust & safety.

Here are five ways an organization can avoid negative consequences of gossip and protect the company culture and their people.

• Share clear vision: A clear vision determines the company’s direction. It helps employees understand the purpose of the company and how they can better help with the broader mission of the company. This gives every employee the opportunity to think of the company as their own.
• Maintain transparency: First hand information maintains respect. Information that trickles through the grape wine generally feeds into speculations and judgments. Share your goals, intention and impact especially around big changes such as Recruiting, Reorgs, Promotions and Layoffs. Allow people an opportunity to align themselves with the business needs. This type of clarity may not completely eliminate doubt and jealousy but at least you're not leaving room for doubts and hesitations. Be retrospective by asking yourself - How might this affect the performance of the team or the organization?
• Encourage open honest feedback: Feedback and complaint share a very thin boundary between each other. There are tons of books written on giving timely feedback. In reality giving good or average feedback is very easy. But when you are at the crossroads with another person the most common reaction I have seen is defensiveness or blaming the messenger. People are not naturally trained to have difficult conversations in a professional environment. So they typically choose to keep things to themselves or talk with other friends. If you are the “chosen one” who gets to hear your friends complain about others, indirect feedback is super powerful in such cases. You don’t have to take sides, bring it to your managers attention. Let them analyze the situation in an unbiased fashion and safely resolve the issue by facilitating dialog between the two individuals.
• Invest in training & development: Training people to hone effective communication skills can go a long way. By delivering messages clearly, you eliminate room for misunderstanding, which decreases potential for conflict. Effective communication is a key factor to ensure situation is resolved in a respectful manner. Training workshops provide tools and frameworks that help with conducting difficult conversations, giving timely non judgmental feedback and developing better listening skills.
• Embrace change: Don’t be surprised if you find misalignment among employees. Either they might not agree with the company direction, might be chronically negative or the expectations of the role are being violated. Try to address their needs, coach them, try to find common grounds, but if you can’t find alignment, maybe the organization is no longer a good fit for the employee. Help them find other opportunities, which will ultimately be good for them as well as the company.

Final Thoughts: While healthy conversations can have a positive impact on the company culture, the wrong kind of gossip can greatly harm the company: it gnaws at the trust between employees, it breeds paranoia, it shuts down open and honest communication, it encourages formation of cliques and guarded territories. As employees and also as leaders of an organization we must not underestimate the harmful impact negative gossip can have. Lead by example, recognize patterns that can stifle honest conversations and be accountable towards how you want to show up in your workplace.