Gossip in the Workplace

If you don't have anything nice to say about someone, don't say anything at all. Growing up in the early '60s, my siblings were often given this advice by our mother. She may have offered this advice as a mother of six trying to keep the peace rather than impacting a deep life message. But her advice is worth noting, especially in the workplace.

How much of your day is taken up by talking about others? Naturally, co-workers discuss plans, work assignments, and events in their daily lives. Those conversations are a normal part of sharing and caring with one's peers. But every employer and employee needs to stop and consider whether those conversations are also including gossip. When I mentioned the subject of gossip to one restaurant owner, he replied, Oh, you mean the lifeblood of my place? Yes, it is a constant in our industry. We talk to people, with people, and especially about people.

Dictionaries define gossip as idle talk about other people. As a manager, the key word here is idle as in not doing anything, which is the opposite of what we want our workers to be doing. If your workers have time to gossip, then other tasks are not being done or someone needs a longer To-Do list.

Gossip is rarely positive. So set ground rules and begin by following the first rule yourself. If you wouldn't say it to the person's face, it's gossip so refrain from saying it at all. Negative communication in the workplace creates friction and friction will slow down or break down the ability of your staff to attain set goals.

So if we admit that gossip, no matter how ingrained in our workplace, is negative, what steps can we take to decrease its presence? Learn from past history of acceptable conduct in the workplace. My young daughter and I recently watched the hit television show Mad Men' that depicts the Madison Avenue advertising world of the early '60s. We were amazed at the blatant sexism and underlying racism in the attitudes of the workers during that time. In today's world those attitudes are simply unacceptable. How have we come such a long way? By taking simple measures to correct bad behavior. I recall hearing a radio ad offering advice on dealing with offensive humor in the workplace. The advice was to merely disengage from the situation and walk away.

Imagine what would happen if, when faced with a gossipy group at the server station, individuals began walking away. One by one we must all refuse to get involved in negative talk about others. Stop accepting negative chatter as a way of life. And ask yourself whether you would be as passive if the talk were racist or sexist?

The owner who refers to gossip as the lifeblood of his establishment is condoning the idle chat by not doing anything about it. So let's learn from our social history. As owners and managers, let it be known to the team, by our own disengagement from the activity, that gossiping is unacceptable behavior.

Average minds talk about people, above-average minds talk about events, and superior minds talk about ideas. Lets all strive to be superior.

Tom Clark is a comic motivator speaking to the hospitality industry to solve problems for food servers and managers. For more information, visit www.TTTomTalks.com