Can workplace gossip and good business etiquette co-exist?
Workplace gossip and business etiquette can co-exist. Gossip is a problem in the workplace whether you’re passing on good gossip or negative gossip about someone as it still cuts into the productivity of the work day. It also demeans characters and causes a snowball effect as people take the office gossip and then they retell it in their own language, so it becomes distorted very quickly in the workplace. Usually higher-ups are often the target but people low on the corporate rung are also guilty of banal conversation that targets and demeans other people, nationalities, genders and sexual orientation. Thus office gossip is always inappropriate. We’re all gentle and we’re all very vulnerable in the workplace to gossip, and if you’ve ever been on the end of gossip you’ll realise how truly devastating it can be. I’ve seen it happen and it’s a sad state of affairs. Thus no matter how good you business etiquette is, there is no place for gossip in the workplace.
