Office gossip is one of those things that we don’t take too much notice of until the subject of the gossip gets personal.
If you are the subject of backstabbing or unrelenting gossip and feel like you’ve had enough, here are some tips to stop the culprits:
1. Lead by example
If you don’t like being gossiped about, the first step is to not get involved in gossiping about other people. If people try to drag yu into office gossip, just explain that you don’t like to talk about other people when they’re not there.
2. Find out the gossip starter
When rumours start to circulate around an office, the person who started it often gets lost in the process, but if you have any colleagues that you trust, ask them if they know who started it, and keep their confidence so you don’t land them in it, too.
3. Gather evidence
Keep a diary about events, and keep tracks of any emails or other forms of evidence that you can use to back up your investigations. You may need this as proof if the matter has to be escalated beyond your team, office or workplace.
4. Confrontation time
The office gossip usually banks on not being approached by the person they’re spreading malicious lies about, so they’ll be taken by surprise that they are confronted.
Hopefully, he or she will be so embarrassed that they’ve been rumbled that a quiet word is enough. Agree to leave it there if you feel an apology is enough, otherwise it could get quite acrimonious.
5. If the chat doesn’t work, you should reimport the matter to the human resources or personnel department. They should have procedures in place to deal with matter like this.
Good luck!
