{"id":2734,"date":"2015-12-04T09:48:42","date_gmt":"2015-12-04T14:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/?p=2734"},"modified":"2024-08-30T11:24:48","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T15:24:48","slug":"gossip-in-the-workplace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/gossip-in-the-workplace\/","title":{"rendered":"Gossip in the Workplace &#8211; is it a Big Deal?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4330\" src=\"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/2327979_19d7b1f323_b.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"855\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/2327979_19d7b1f323_b.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/2327979_19d7b1f323_b-300x250.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/>Is office gossip getting out of hand at your business? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gossip in the workplace can quickly become harmful to your business and your workers, so it\u2019s best to take a comprehensive approach and respond quickly to complaints. When possible, be proactive. Here are a few recommendations:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Address office gossip in your <a title=\"8 Reasons to Have an Employee Handbook\" href=\"\/business\/reasons-to-have-an-employee-handbook\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">employee handbook<\/a>, either by name or by prohibiting any conduct that creates a hostile, offensive, or intimidating work environment. Just make sure your policy is not overly broad or might violate an employee\u2019s rights under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlrb.gov\/rights-we-protect\/whats-law\/employers\/interfering-employee-rights-section-7-8a1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act<\/a> (NLRA).<\/li>\n<li>Discuss the issue of gossip during team meetings and especially with management, who should set the right example for everyone.<\/li>\n<li>Train employees to recognize when they are gossiping and why they shouldn\u2019t gossip in the office. Provide them with ways to remove themselves from a conversation or to direct a conversation back to company-related work. You may want to consider seminars or workshops if the gossip persists.<\/li>\n<li>Implement a clear, simple process for employees to inform you when malicious gossip or other harassment has occurred and for you to respond immediately to complaints.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It is also important to take a look at the subject matter of the gossip to determine if a bigger issue is at work. Gossip frequently increases, for example, when a company undergoes a big change and management is shy about the details. In a case such as this, over-communicating both the good and the bad to employees helps to eliminate the guessing and creative conspiracy theories that employees invent when management has passed on few substantial facts.<\/p>\n<p>No employer can eliminate gossip completely, but by taking a comprehensive approach to gossip and to any issues underlying it, you can address the matter before it creates liability, hurts morale, or increases turnover.<\/p>\n<p>For more information on how GTM provides businesses with the HR support they need, <a href=\"\/business\/contact-gtm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">contact us<\/a> at (518) 373-4111.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is office gossip getting out of hand at your business? Gossip in the workplace can quickly become harmful to your business and your workers, so it\u2019s best to take a comprehensive approach and respond quickly to complaints. When possible, be proactive. Here are a few recommendations: Address office gossip in your employee handbook, either by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[266],"tags":[49,16,34,19],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-2734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consulting-services","tag-culture","tag-employees","tag-flsa","tag-human-resources"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2734"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4740,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2734\/revisions\/4740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2734"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=2734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}