Gossip in the workplace: How organisations should address it?

From a company perspective, an organisation should encourage gossip among the employees. Whenever there is a project, the employees gossip among themselves about the positive and negative sides of the projects and also the problems they are facing. This will not only help with coming out of an employee with his problems but also how to deal with it which will make him more productive. Gossiping is normally about things that really matter to the company or team and should be addressed. That's why smart companies have a zero-tolerance policy toward gossip.

No one gossip about the actual work in the workplace unless it has to do with poor performance or someone who don't deserve a promotion gets promoted or someone being delinquent. What they do is talk about incidents of information they heard or witness about other employees which is more or less personal. Discussing news or incidents that happen outside of the workplace during working hours is simply wasting time but this can be done during your lunch/breaktime.

To avoid gossiping management will have to put a policy in place so that workers are aware of penalties if they are caught gossiping during working hours. You simply can't stop gossiping but you can curb it.

Some bosses and managers are also involved in gossiping. So they will also have to set good example.

Everyone hates auditors, so you bet no one comes to gossip with me.... So I am in safe zone.

Gossiping is part of Relaxation but their should be some limitation. Somtimes we are in so much pressure that we can not move a single step, that time we need some one discuss the matter. So some time gossiping  may help us to improve our work.

Though Gossiping at workplace is not always productive for a company coz sometimes gossip is related to some of the which donot affect company's productivity in any way.But it is also a fact that companies cannot completely control it....so according to me d best option for companies is to have an overall good Management .....so that they can extract the required amount of work & productivity from an employee and if inspite of doing all the work if he/she is getting time for Gossiping and other things ..then its good for him b'coz it also gives u a slight break from your work and slightly help u add to ur efficiency by freshening ur mind. Also , there are a lot of positive things that v come to know in Gossipng .....coz dat way v r also interchanging our inner ideas n other things........Hence, in my opinion company should not think about disallowing Gossipin at workplace but they should work in proper managing .

Gossiping is not a good tendency, whether in or out of the workplace. It is not the place where you gossip matters. You look bad when you gossip. When you gossip, the listeners often attribute bad qualities to you. A person who tends to gossip is unlikely to be successful in sustaining relationship at work places. A gossiper’s words could reflect his own personality. Organisations should identify means and measures to curb gossiping to the maximum possible extent. Take regular feedback from reliable Employees, keep watch over the Gossipers and warn them strictly.

The listeners are as much responsibles as are gossipers themselves. In french we say "such a manager such employees"

If gossips continue that sometimes because the leader tolerate or encourage them... and workers also. But it does not communicate a good fame for the company.

Human Behaviour is the one you cannot change, so do gossiping, lets accept it. What i feel lets have a room inside office (conference room, training room, etc) and allow people to gossip related to office mater that is not in their control. Let them give the gist of the outcome to the management on daily basis or after every gossip matter. This will help the management to get good ideas as well as time passers to remain outside of gossip.

women specialize in gossiping ( their core competence)

and they hardly digest anything ( age old truism)

men collect raw data ( gossip inspired ) from them and use it in decision making ..

Gossiping will hurt the working culture and it also hurt the morale of the employee. Its a common in all places but it should be resticted in working place. In my opinion it shall be in lunch break allowed.

Without talking to coemployee is imposible thing in working environment, but the employees and employers should be understand the time value. I obserbed some managers/heads themselves start the gossip, really this will hurt the employee morale and the productivity and quality of work declines.

In my opinoin, the organizations should maintain freindly environment in the working place. the behavior of employee/employer should be fair and transparent.

Gossiping is a form of relaxation.However I feel sometime gossiping can really be destructive in a group or team as it spoils the conduciveness within the members.So simply make the work environment more tight. Only a stiff environment can keep it in control though it can never be stoppd.Lesser leisure will result in lesser gossips and hence there will be hardly any problem.This is in general case.However in some perticular cases the administartion should take stern actions in order to prevent its(read, "gossiping") disparaging effect.

Corporate Manual relaying what should be gossiped about and what not is a good solution to this.

Gossip should not be encouraged.