[CJP Insights] No Gossip Policy
In the workplace, gossip is an activity that can drain, distract and downshift employee job satisfaction. We all have participated in this, yet most of us say we don’t like it. Some amount of workplace gossip is actually healthy. It shows camaraderie among your team. When it hurts someone’s feelings or affect morale or attitude, that’s when the line’s been crossed. You have to be really observant to know when that happens.
An old adage says “Words have no wings but they can fly a thousand miles.” And words with no truth can travel even faster, right? Where there are people, there will be gossip and a workplace is one such place where gossip and rumours can spread even faster than wildfire. It doesn’t matter whether there is any truth in it or not. Gossip drains a lot of energy on the work front, especially when you have insecure colleagues going out of their way to sabotage your reputation.
Workplace gossip can be very serious, however, if the gossiper has significant power over the recipient, wrote authors Nancy Kurland and Lisa Hope Pelled in their article “Passing the Word: Toward a Model of Gossip and Power in the Workplace,” which appeared in the April 2000 issue of The Academy of Management Review.
Recently, Chalo, a startup known for its live bus-tracking app, was in the news for it has implemented a “no-gossip” policy. . The Company has a Zero Tolerance policy towards gossip and each employee has to sign a ‘No-Gossip’ agreement at the time of joining. The HR function takes strict action against those who fail to abide by this rule.
However, there is a caveat here. Courts have ruled about what can be included in a Go-Gossip policy. In the USA, in 2013, in case of Laurus Technical Institute , which implemented a no gossip policy, judges at National Labor Relations Board ruled that the non-union workplace could not prevent individuals from discussing the terms of their employment with other employees. A policy, which explicitly stated employees were not to speak of the terms of employment violated a protected right. Thus a “no-gossip policy” should explicitly state that it’s not meant to limit employees’ right to talk about wages, hours or working conditions; rather, it is aimed at gossip about non-work-related . As long as no gossip policies are written with the protected rights of employees in mind, and are drafted to clearly state what the policy is aiming to enforce, they can be used to help maintain a friendly work environment.
An illustrative policy could be
In order to have a more professional, gossip free workplace we will:
a) Not speak or insinuate another person’s name when that person is not present unless it is to compliment or reference regarding work matters.
b) Refuse to participate when another mentions a person who is not present in a negative light. I will change the subject or tell them I have agreed not to talk about another.
c) Choose not to respond to negative email or use email to pass on private or derogatory information about any person in the agency.
d) While off the job, speak to another co-worker about people at work in a derogatory light. If I have feelings, I will select to talk to someone not at the workplace.
e) If another person in the department does something unethical, incorrect, against procedures, or disruptive I will use the proper channels to report this to the person in authority to take corrective action.
f) I will mind my own business, do good work, be a professional adult and expect the same from others.[i]
What do you think? Should organisations have a ‘no gossip” policy?
