Gossip as Punishment

One of the articles that I recently read about gossip focused on the act of gossiping as a payback tool. In other words, an individual feels wronged by a person in a power position and gossiping about that person is a way of punishing for the wrongdoing. An example that was given in the article focused on a study of women in a traditional, middle-eastern culture. The women in the study were all married to a man with multiple wives. The researcher found that the women spent an inordinate amount of time talking in extremely disparaging ways about their husbands. Conclusion, a culture in which women have little power and in a marital relationship with even less power, gossip becomes the available tool by which to strike back.

It is not hard to extrapolate from this example to the American workplace where women have traditionally had little power. In this context, gossip on the part of low power women can be viewed as a method to punish, for example, a male boss who abuses power. Similar logic can be applied to racial or cultural groups that have been assigned low power positions in organizations.
Keeping in mind the basic purpose of this blog which is to promote a civilized workplace over one filled with malicious, destructive communication, the problem with gossip as a tool to redress grievances is that it promotes a hostile work environment while not addressing the problem. Obviously from the above examples, there are two significant problems: 1) the power imbalance and 2) the abuse of power through a failure to show respect and appreciation for those in a subordinate position. Gossiping will not confront either of these problems.

I recently ran across a short internet article about a town in Brazil that was so fed-up with gossip in the workplace that it passed an ordinance prohibiting it. I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings to the town council but their ordinance will have little impact on the private communications between their employees. Instead, the council might look to the relationship between superiors and subordinates and evaluate the extent to which some groups (women perhaps) have been traditionally denied access to power positions and/or look at the way power is used by the individuals occupying positions of power. My sense is that the council will achieve a lot more towards halting destructive communication by taking these actions than by their anti-gossip ordinance.