Gossip Girl

Hey all you office goers, Gossip Girl here.  We all know that I exist outside the confines of Tween text messages and IMs.  Most likely, my gossip army is thriving in your very office as we speak. Ever heard of  “water cooler  talk” or “ the sidebar chat”? That’s right. We are talking about you.  And not in a good way.

Gossip is alive and well in all of our offices and we are often we are asked to participate. The following are some tips from the RSP to avoid the baggage that comes with gossip: 

Gossip with the Boss: If your office superior wants to gossip in your ear, let him or her.  Nix the self-righteous “I don’t want to gossip” card as that will not go over well with your superior

Vague and Engaged: If you must participate in gossip, do so in a discrete way. Start championing terms like “that’s interesting,” “I didn’t know that” and avoid actually contributing to the gossip

Buck Stops Here: Don’t repeat gossip.  It could very easily be pinned to you rather than the true originator   

Email is not a good place to talk bad about people:  Never ever gossip over email. Even if it is just forwarding what someone else in your office