Gossip can isolate one person from the group or divide the team. When people gossip, they often make assumptions without realizing it and they convey more information than they know is true. Misunderstandings are common because the spoken word is easily misunderstood. Gossip is commonly defined as rumors or conversations of a personal, intimate, or sensational nature.
Whether gossip is true or not, it is often toxic and spreads faster than a virus in a kindergarten classroom. Gossip not only lowers morale, but it also affects the organization's culture. Often, those who regularly gossip are passionate about what they say, but lack the solutions or the power to bring about positive change. From the first day the humble water cooler was invented, it has been a gathering place for office gossip to clean up dirt.
To stop gossip once it has begun, it's important to ensure that you've established a vision and mission statement that define the organization's culture and expectations. If your words aren't something you would say in front of the person, or if they have no basis, they're probably gossip. Let's briefly look at the gossip from the point of view of God communicated to us by the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). Gossip is a type of corruption that can also corrupt schools through the language of the gossipy by communicating distorted facts and false stories.
Whether the perpetrators are high-level managers, front-line employees, or both, gossip and complaints can be toxic and costly for an organization. According to Fox Business analyst Dave Ramsey, all small businesses should implement a no-gossip policy as part of their standard operating procedures and then enforce the policy as often as necessary. Communication is the main process of linking and a primary means by which people obtain and exchange information in an organization, but gossip can have adverse effects on any organization. Gossip can also harm a small business if a decline in morale causes employees to lose focus on the customer.
For example, if an office manager feels belittled by a salesperson's gossip, the manager could lose trust in the seller. The act of gossiping is bad, since both the speaker and the listener attack a defenseless person. A client who does the accounting at a public accounting firm, for example, doesn't want to hear that office gossip could cause their chief accountant to leave the company. While small talk may not seem like a big deal, gossip can quickly get out of control, especially in a small business environment.
Their loyalty to the organization is always zero and they represent a threat to their co-workers who hang over their heads like swords, so most weak personalities also follow in their footsteps and play the role of gossipers to survive at work, ultimately leading to an unhealthy and unproductive work environment. Gossip can cause divisions within the organization, as people side with each other or lose trust in their associates.
