Look who's bitching! Surviving gossip

New Delhi: Of course, you don’t gossip in office. It’s your colleagues who do and you hear the juiciest ‘news’ and rumours from them.

Harmless gossip doesn’t hurt, but as Bertrand Russel said, “No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.” Gossip and rumours are often slanderous lies that damages people's reputation.

The truth is if professional relationships are honoured in the strictest possible manner, the probability of rumours becomes very less.

However, since it’s not always possible for employers and employees to be thorough professionals, gossips do happen and give rise to deadly rumours.

BBC's teleseries Office Gossip is all about scandalous details of who's sleeping with whom!

Surviving gossip and rumour mongering is part of survival strategy in office and it is as important as getting credit for your work and fighting favouritism.

Loose talk

Call centre executive Akansha Kumar’s friend and colleague Ritu was close to their boss. First, Ritu was seen travelling with the boss in his car and then visiting his house.

Ritu became friends with the boss’s wife and children too. The entire office was soon talking about Ritu and each conversation added a new twist to the tale.

Things got messy when the rumours reached the boss’s ears and he started hunting for the culprits.

When Akansha returned from leave, she found that she was being blamed for the rumours. It was said that Akansha must have spread the rumours about Ritu because she was close to her.

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Popular teleseries Ally McBeal also talks about juicy gossip in a law firm

Expertspeak

Sanjay Salooja, corporate philosopher and growth strategist

Office gossip and backbiting has two solutions: prevention and cure.

Prevention: Concentrate on work and be professional at all cost. If someone is playing dirty with you, it won’t yield results if your performance is excellent.

• Build your network in the office. Have a good rapport with colleagues. In short, don't burn bridges.
• Don't go to your boss for petty issues and avoid sounding as if you are complaining.
• Don't make others look bad. Never criticise employees or bosses.
• Support others at work. If you do this well, others will support you if someone is dragging you into controversies.
• Don't discuss personal problems till there is utmost trust in the relationship. Building relationships takes some time, so be careful before you start discussing personal issues.

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SAB-TV's series Yes Boss is a hilarious take on office politics and has an ample amount of "hot gossip" thrown in

Be assertive when there is a need for it. Don’t be scared to rock the boat once in a while to give others the message about what you are willing to stand for and what you will not accept

The cure: If you have been dragged into a controversy, use these to get an escape route.

• Find out if people are really talking about you. Talk to reliable sources to know if it is true and how much is true.
• Confront the person who has been spreading rumours and do the talking in private. Let the person know that you will not accept this anymore.
• Have a heart to heart with the person who is being gossiped about. Do not defend anything; let the person pour out his/her feelings first.
• Respect the other person’s stand. Accept that you were involved in the conversation.

Apologise if you have caused hurt someone. Let the other person know that you feel bad about what the person is going through because of what was said about him/her. Aplogising is accepting responsibility.

Clarify what you contributed to the gossip and if others have added fuel to it make it clear that others are trying to create a controversy in which you have no role. Do not accept more than what you have contributed

Promise that you won’t gossip about the person again. Let it be seen in your actions and words that the same does not happen again.

Do remember to be honest and sincere. Finally respond from strength with integrity.