Lack Of Facts Creates Workplace Gossip

Workplace gossip can be a career advancer or a career killer.

On one hand, being plugged into the rumor mill is the ultimate networking goal. If you know what the memo’s going to say before it comes out, your co-workers know you have friends in high places. However Machiavellian it sounds, this is a career plus.

On the other hand, too much time spent passing incorrect, untimely or hurtful information brands you as an office malcontent or, at the minimum, unproductive.

Video Arts Inc., a producer of workplace training videos distributed internationally, has a video called “The Grapevine.” Its publicity states 75 percent of employees first hear about critical, job-related matters on the grapevine. Networking tool or not, that’s a pity.

But experts say the answer is not to tell people to go back to their work stations and shut up. The answer is to give workers appropriate information in a timely, heads-up way.

Regular face-to-face meetings may not be feasible in mega corporations, far-flung branches and “virtual offices.” But there are bulletin boards, company newsletters, faxes, e-mail, company intranets and plain old daily interaction with co-workers.

One problem, according to Jill Carpenter, a Kansas City, Mo., consultant who specializes in open-book management training, is that many American workplaces have a rigid chain of command. Dripping out information in eyedropper doses on a “need-to-know” basis may be fine for military campaigns, but it doesn’t fit with the modern American workforce.

“When workers don’t have the facts, they invent them,” she notes. “When they’re kept in the dark and treated like children, they’re more likely to behave like kids. That’s when gossip ensues.”

Today’s workforce expects to know what’s going on. Without current information, the typical human reaction is fear and mistrust. Good workers want and need to know basic business facts and goals; if they don’t, it’s time to worry about their commitment and motivation.

Unfortunately, managerial egos frequently get in the way of sharing information. Information is power, and some wear it as a badge, savoring its selective dispersal.

There also are lily-livered links in the management chain who sabotage the best intentions to keep workers informed. Carpenter says she often counsels managers who are afraid to share anything lest they get in trouble.

Obviously, some personnel and financial information must be kept confidential for good reasons, but Carpenter notes communication problems arise when managers lack the courage or discretion to figure out what to share. Obviously, too, permission to share must be granted from the top.

Using the Internet

Women who regularly use the Internet believe it has helped them - both on the job and in their personal lives.

That’s the preliminary finding of an on-line survey conducted by the Women’s Center at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Even though the survey was weighted heavily in favor of the Internet - it was conducted on line through Web sites, Internet mailing lists and newsgroups - the results surprised Linda Rodriguez, who is coordinating the survey for the center.

“I knew they would all have a fairly positive attitude about the Internet, but I expected some negativity,” Rodriguez said. “But there was an overwhelmingly positive attitude on everyone’s part.”

Survey responses came from 50 states and eight countries.

“The women in this survey are telling women who are afraid of cyberspace, ‘This is a good thing. Get smart and join us,”’ Rodriguez said. “There are a lot of women out there on the Internet. It’s not just computer nerds.”