The solution to office gossip is to define it
Employers are fairly good at communicating expectations in terms of performance. When it comes to behavioral expectations, however, employers can be much less clear. To terminate office gossip, employers must communicate and define their behavioral expectations. This way, they can begin to create an atmosphere where they take on the responsibility.
Managers behavior sets the tone with office gossip
When a miserable, grumpy, whiny, gossip, gabbing, grapevine is in management, the chances of any group of employees’ direct reports overcoming that kind of manager are very slim. For this reason, a manager’s behavior should be expected to be extraordinary. The manager must be the example. But, an exemplary manager is not enough.
Define office gossip to defeat it
Many say, “A problem named is a problem solved”. And so, gossip and gab in the workplace is hereby called triangulation. Triangulation is simply having an issue with someone and talking about it with somebody else. A supervisor should say, from the start, that conflict is to be expected. However, this is how we’ve agreed to handle it as a company. If you have an issue with someone, talk about it with them directly. Have the conversation. Don’t just fail to express something and talk about it behind their back, turning it into an office gossip problem.
Sometimes, it can be considered a form of harassment to prohibit someone from speaking to a coworker. This is easy to overcome. Perhaps make it alright to speak to someone else first before you confront the other. But you must leave that discussion with a date and time for which you’ll have the confrontation.
Supervisors must escape the terms gossip, gab, and grapevine, because they can not control that. But they can control the negative effects of triangulation in their own atmosphere by defining their expectations about it.
Edited remarks from the Rapid Learning Institute webinar Gossip, Gab, and the Grapevine: How to Neutralize Its Negative Impact by Hunter Lott
