From Gossip to Growth | Eradicate Workplace Gossip

Is gossip rampant in your department, organisation or company?Have you tried multiple different strategies like: -＞ Speaking to your team, -＞ Trying to get them on board with not gossiping, -＞ Organising workplace culture training-＞ Inspirational talks-＞ Professional development-＞ Words of encouragement and/or-＞ sending out famous quotes about the importance of workplace culture and the environment at work.I’ve been there before! I started as the gossiper, following the ’unwritten rules’ of the organisation I was working at. Gossip was the norm, and I didn’t even realise at the time the damage it could be doing to the people I was gossiping about. I was never spoken to by a leader for gossiping, and I’ve often wondered why it was tolerated, and why the gossip was as bad as it was. Fast forward a couple of years and I changed employers. Coming from a toxic work environment, where I was part of the problem, I decided to not be part of the problem anymore. I decided I wasn’t going to gossip. As gossip was rampant in this working environment as well, I soon became a victim of gossip for my lack of sharing the gossiping sentiment. I was shocked about the things people were saying about each other, how mean they were and just outright ugly.I stuck to my guns and refused to participate. I became somewhat of an outsider, but I stuck it out. It was tough, and no one liked me for my lack of participation, but in those 3-4 years, I built grit. Although I was building internal resilience and getting to know how strong I (really) was, I became resentful towards the leaders for the lack of accountability towards the staff, their lack of care for the working environment that we were in and the fact that they were part of the problem. Leaders tolerated the gossip because it was the norm, and everyone was doing it. They lacked time to deal with it and hated conflict, so decided to avoid it instead. Fast forward a couple of years again, I found myself in a leadership role where I led a relatively new department. Within 3 months, gossip had taken over and there was a huge problem!Office gossip had once again, infiltrated another perfectly good team, dividing them, causing mistrust, a lack of communication, conflict and the list goes on.I had to pull up my sleeves and declare battle! Gossip would not have a place in my team!I set out to find the solution to eradicating workplace gossip. But no one had the exact answer. A lot of great leaders offered their advice and slowly but surely I had to put the pieces of the puzzle together. I implemented what is now known as the RESPECT framework, which is the steps I took, very clunky and making A LOT of mistakes along the way, to eradicate workplace gossip and create a thriving workplace culture so that every single person who walked through those doors:-＞ felt valued-＞ wanted to be there-＞ wanted to add value to the team and the organisation-＞ was treated with respect. It took me 12 months to implement these steps, but I did it!Along with my leadership team, we eradicated gossip and experienced first-hand what it felt like to work in a gossip-free zone! It felt good! It felt amazing and it was worth all the effort, trials and tribulations.By eradicating gossip, my team:-＞ Increased productivity-＞ Managed their time better-＞ Stopped wasting valuable time-＞ Started working autonomously-＞ Started trusting each other-＞ Experienced less conflict-＞ Gained a growth mindset and left the fixed mindset behind-＞ Offered a better customer experienceAs a result of eradicating office gossip, the leadership team:-＞ Gained back valuable time, usually wasted on mediating unnecessary conflict-＞ Could focus on strategy instead of on bad and negative employee behaviour-＞ Could focus on activities that affect the bottom line-＞ Could focus on offering a better and more positive working environment for all employees. Now I’m on a mission, to share these strategies with leaders who are also ready to eradicate workplace gossip...more

Rika Whelan | Workplace Gossip Strategist

All Episodes (17)

From new to old

From new to old From old to new