One of the main causes of gossip is the lack of adequate communication channels between the worker and the manager. Deborah Riegel, editor of Harvard Business Review, explains that gossip is the language of those who don't have a comfortable way of giving direct feedback to their company. Not all types of gossip come from malicious intruders at work. Some gossip arises because employees feel anxious and feel that they have no other resources other than speculation.
Therefore, before taking any steps to correct gossip, you must identify its root causes. If toxic gossip isn't addressed, it can cause serious and even permanent damage to your workplace culture. No other book on work culture allows you to face work challenges like the 8 critical researched and proven factors found in Culture Works. The first thing that managers and HR representatives need to understand is that employees have a legal right to discuss employment issues and issues, including their salary at work.
The best managers know how to differentiate harmful gossip from the most innocuous forms of jokes in the workplace, and they strive to root out the underlying causes of gossip in order to eliminate it completely. With Culture Works in your hands, you'll know exactly how and what to do to manage your workplace culture. In a healthy workplace, colleagues care about each other's lives and are excited to share news with each other. However, this gossip can still provide a network of observations and warnings that provide an informal support infrastructure outside traditional labor channels, such as human resources.
While there are advocates of gossip as a means for an employee to understand the ins and outs of the workplace, there is a clear distinction between informational debate and harmful gossip. Well-developed negative opinions can leave the workplace and damage a company's reputation in a particular geography or industry, impairing the company's ability to attract qualified candidates. Experts say that talking about other people behind their backs doesn't have to be a guilty office hobby, but it can be a useful tool for navigating the workplace and learning important information. Executives who succeed in combating the scourge of workplace gossip can significantly benefit a company's bottom line.
However, surveys suggest that the main reason people do it is because they really just want to make sense of their environment, says Shannon Taylor, professor of management at the University of Central Florida (USA). USA), which studies the dynamics of the workplace. For example, encouraging employees to turn their problems into solutions to improve the workplace can benefit a company. However, if complaints turn into unfounded accusations, harassment, or speculation that causes serious disruption in the workplace, they begin to have major repercussions.
Any rule or policy that inadvertently limits this type of communication or speech under the pretext of reducing workplace gossip can be problematic from a legal standpoint. This entrenched behavior translates into the modern workplace, he says, “where it's equally important to know which colleagues you can trust and who you should be careful with.
