Who does not gossip, everyone does. In fact, I am totally a pro gossip person, but only till the time it does not get malicious. At workplace gossip is just inevitable, so you have to accept it, be a part of it, and should control it in a way that it doesn’t get bad versioned. Healthy gossiping is good for work it helps in improving productivity. It comes as a break for the over burdened employees and probably is the only breather they get out of their tight schedule.
As an employer, it is only natural to feel agitated to see your employees wasting time over gossiping and indulging in talks that are irrelevant but please do not forgets they are humans, and humans work on emotions based on what they feel and say. It is important that your employees interact amongst each other because only sync between them will mean profit to you.
You have to be smart enough as a boss, and take your employee in so much confidence that they share their talks with you or at the least include you what they feel. If they are keeping you aloof, there has to something that you are doing wrong. You have to play intelligent, enjoy the gossip and work towards making it only healthy. It should not dirty and malicious, because if it does it surely means losses to you and your business.
This is how you can deal with negative office gossip
Promotion of positive sharing
Do not stop people from sharing, but help in promoting sharing of all such things that can positively impact the working of the employees and earn profits for business in general. Once you promote positive sharing yourself, your employees will also be in better terms with you. This will help them increase their productivity.
Sharing of positive things, helps create a positive work culture and better work environment in general. A positive work environment is a win-win for all. It is ideal for strategizing; it helps in generating new and creative ideas, and makes the stepwise implementation of the same easier.
Communicate and confront
At times, the gossip turns too malicious and starts to affect the working of the organization negatively. When this starts happening it is important that gossip is taken seriously and the matter be resolved there and then.
Communication and direct confrontation is one the best measure that you can adopt to solve the matter that troubling your employee. Make sure you have a detailed discussion over the subject that has ignited the entire gossip process. A discussion often leads the matter to rest calm.
Meeting with your core team more often
Make it a habit to meet your team more often. Having regular and continuous meetings make your employees more comfortable and helps them, share their thoughts openly instead of gossiping about them. Just remember gossip in the first place happens because there is a zero comfort level between the employee and the employer.
You have to give your employees a chance to state their thoughts, and may be they have a genuine point to make. Hear them out, employees are not always wrong, there can be things that you need to change before it is too late.
Shoot official mails every now and then
It is important that you maintain a proper communication channel, which is why you should shoot official mails for all the conversations that happen in and around the organization. In fact, it should be made the organizational policy to have a written account of each statement and conversation that so takes place.
Gossiping is not harmful until it turns malicious. As an employer, you have to make sure that it is being practiced only in a healthy way, promoting positive sharing in the name of gossip.
