People find it quite annoying when they hear gossips about themselves in their workplace. Though gossips aren’t a serious issue, sometimes it might lead you to a considerable loss, if you don’t solve them. Here are a few tips to deal with office gossips.
Know the gossip
If any of your colleagues speak ill about you or some other employee, you cannot misjudge them unless you know that it’s a gossip. Sometimes, a half-said news might become a gossip and spread among the employees. Or, your colleagues may spread the casual chit-chats as a gossip. So just know the content of the gossip, but don’t take it in a serious manner. If the gossip is about you, don’t get angry with your employees or colleagues. Instead, try to find the reason for the gossip. Make a friendly conversation with your colleagues to know the rumors.
Assess the seriousness
If you are aware of the context of the gossips, assess whether they might cause serious trouble to you or your colleagues. In case, if the gossip is about you, analyze the seriousness of it. If they are just a hearsay, simply ignore them. Spend some time to list the negative effects of those gossips. In fact, there are different kinds of gossip depending on their seriousness and the behavior of the gossiper. If the gossips tend to affect you or your colleagues personally, then you must take immediate action to stop them. Else, they might cause grimy troubles at your workplace.
Take action
If the gossips at your workplace seem to affect your routine work, don’t hesitate to solve them immediately. In case, if you know the gossipers, speak to them politely and make them understand how it affects your work. Speak to the gossipers even if the rumors aren’t about you, but about some other colleagues. However, be careful when speaking to them as they might create a negative opinion about you. Make a friendly chat, but insist them to stop speaking ill about someone in their workplace.
Don’t involve
Sometimes, the best way to deal with office gossips is to ignore them completely. Because, good people know that a gossip is just a gossip, and never take them seriously. So, instead of diverting your attention towards gossips, focus yourself in your work. Obviously, gossips will vanish away in time. However, if the gossips are likely to affect your future carrier, you must take them seriously. Try to solve them as soon as possible because gossips spread faster than the forest fires. For the less important issues, exclude yourselves from gossips at the workplace.
Change the topic
Certain circumstances might prevent you from neither ignoring gossips, nor listen to them. During such situations, try to take part in the conversation and change the topic of the discussion. However, you must make your move cleverly, otherwise your colleagues may find your intention in the discussion. Make sure that you don’t alert them by acting very smart. Initially, join the discussion in favor of the gossiper. Once you blend into the conversation, bring the other topics to the discussion and make them interesting. Prepare your topics before you take part in the conversation.
Discourage the gossipers
When you talk with the gossipers, you must carefully discourage their gossips without alerting them about it. For instance, if somebody speaks ill about your boss, make a friendly comment that he/she is being negative in his/her life. Immediately, they will stop their gossips and start wondering about themselves for being negative. This technique works pretty well; however, some people may think that you are mocking them. That’s why you should make a friendly as well as a jovial conversation with your colleagues while discouraging their gossiping behavior.
Forgive and forget
Certain gossips would have already affected your career or life. Never regret them in your life. Just forgive the people who did them; because, the act of forgiving makes you happy as well. Forget the miserable incidents that have happened in the past. Think positively and try to utilize the opportunities available to you right now. When you focus your attention on the good side of your life, gossips and rumors will never bother you. In fact, with the above mentioned techniques, you can deal the office gossips without a hitch.
