Let office gossipers be, a new study suggests

Gossip. When two people are whispering in an isolated corridor at the workplace, instinct tells us they are up to no good.

So, many workplaces have consistently looked for ways of nipping this habit in the bud. It’s considered a terrible act that must be frowned upon and dealt with.

Some workplaces have even established anti-gossip policies that go as far as specifying disciplinary actions against office gossip mongers. 
Gossip has always had a bad reputation. There are accounts of severe punishments for gossip in the Middle Ages, when individuals guilty of indulging in surreptitious chinwag were condemned to wear iron masks with spikes that protruded into the mouth.

It is also suggested that when women were burnt for engaging in witchcraft, it often had less to do with their allegiance to the supernatural and more to do with their love for gossip.

Fortunately, today’s workplace punishments are a little less severe, but those bosses keen to banish gossip at work might want to think again. Doctors are now saying it is actually a good thing to gossip at work.

Apparently, not only is it therapeutic, it is as healthy as it has been thought to be unhealthy, researchers now argue.

The growing number of health professionals and academics contend that gossip isn’t such a terrible thing – that in many instances, it can have a positive impact on health, success and even team cohesion at work.

Dr Bianca Beersma and Professor Gerben Van Kleef of the Department of Work and Organisational Psychology at the University of Amsterdam, say they have found that gossip serves as a kind of “social cement”, and that organisations can “benefit from gossip that is instigated for positive reasons”.

That means the blanket description of gossip as an entirely negative habit has been the problem. The team of researchers who work with Dr Beersma and Professor Van Kleef on this ongoing study have so far found that as much as two-thirds of our conversation is gossip anyway, not all of it is necessarily nasty.

Instead, the study found that gossip is used in many functional ways. For instance, it is used to warn colleagues about workmates who are not pulling their weight or should not be trusted.

Reputation systems promote cooperation and deter antisocial behaviour in groups. In this case, fear of gossip can ensure that lazy workers fall into line and do their bit. It also maintains cooperation in human groups.

“The threat of gossip seems to function as social pressure that motivates group members to ‘stay in line’ and behave in accordance with the acceptable confines and norms,” argues Dr Beersma.

These findings support those of a 2013 study by researchers at the University of California, who argued that “good” gossip was necessary for the good of humanity.

“A lot of gossip is driven by concern for others and have positive, social effects,” said Dr Robb Willer, the co-author of The Virtues of Gossip. Dr Willer refers to good gossip as “pro-social” gossip. This is gossip that is well intentioned and aims to arm the recipient with information that will make their life easier.

“Individuals, who observe an antisocial act experience negative affect and are compelled to share information about the antisocial actor with a potentially vulnerable person,” says the doctor.

In one of their experiments, the researchers observed 399 participants playing an online game with a $50 prize that required players to cooperate with other individuals to win the prize.

The threat of gossip impelled people to play more generously.

“We find that those who engage in this form of gossip are generally driven by sincere desires to help others,” said Dr Willer, noting that it also eased frustration and made people feel better. “More generous people are more likely to engage in this form of gossip.”

The on-going study establishes the existence and dynamics of pro-social gossip, the sharing of negative evaluative information about a target in a way that protects others from antisocial or exploitative behaviour.

Consultant organisational psychologist Patricia Nyokabi says, however, that gossip by any other name is still gossip. She says because gossip is essentially talking about a person behind their back then it should not be encouraged. Instead, she argues, a person who notices something wrong with someone should walk over to them and talk to them about it.   

She contends that gossip puts pressure on the subject and that way, it bears destructive powers like anger, shame, low self-esteem and resentment.

“What should not be forgotten here is that some people use gossip for selfish interests at the expense of others,” Ms Nyokabi stresses.