Deal With Gossip in Your Small Business

Your staff is small and one of your employees is constantly gossiping about co-workers, customers, and probably you too. People are starting to complain, but the gossip monger is a good worker. What should you do?

Gossip in the office is about as common as a stapler. There are always those individuals who want to “fit in” or they want co-workers to view them as someone who is “in the know”. Because gossipers often suffer from low self-esteem, talking about others or spreading rumors makes them feel important and powerful.

Practically everyone is guilty of a sharing a little scuttlebutt at the water cooler from time to time. However, when gossip and rumors are out of control, the result is damaging and it creates an unhealthy work environment. According to a recent survey conducted by the staffing firm Randstad USA and Harris Interactive, 60 percent of more than 1,500 respondents said workplace gossip is their number one pet peeve.

From your perspective as the business owner, you should be extremely concerned about this situation. Workplace gossip decreases productivity, distracts people from their work, creates a divisive workplace and dramatically impacts morale.

So what should you do? For starters, confront the office gossip monger and have a serious conversation with her. Make it crystal clear you don’t approve of her gossipy habits and explain the importance of conversational boundaries in the workplace.

Additionally, I think you need to take a close look at her contributions to your company. Is she really as good as you think? Is she so good it’s worth the risk of losing the other two employees? What about her productivity? It appears obvious to me that if she’d spend more time working and less time gossiping, she’d get a lot more done. Plus, she’s distracting the other employees and possibly upsetting them which interferes with their productivity and well-being.

Another concern is the exposure to potential liability. Depending on the nature of the rumors, your company may be subject to claims of harassment, slander or other types of legal recourse. That’s particularly true if you’ve been made aware of the situation and have done nothing to remedy it.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the Chatty-Cathy in your firm could cause you to lose business impacting your bottom line. In your question, you said she gossips about customers. What if one of them finds out that your employee – a representative of your company — is telling tales about them? Get ready for that person is to take her business elsewhere.

I’ll close with a few recommendations. Try creating a gossip-free workplace for six months or so and get buy-in from your team. Schedule open dialogue meetings every week to encourage positive communications among your employees and you. The bottom line is, if you’re unable to get the gossip in your office under control, then it’s up to you to put the kibosh on it and take corrective action for the good of your business.

By: Susan Wilson Solovic

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