Magnifying the Problem

During the past year there has been an ongoing saga with regard to a small town in the New England states. It seems that a number of employees engaged in acts of gossiping about the city manager’s relationship with a female employee – the gossip all started when she received a nice promotion. Four long-term employees were discharged for having participated in the gossip. Lawsuits have been filed, at least one employee was returned to work and the drama continues.

So, should employees have their employment terminated when they engage in acts of gossip? Under a union contract that would be extremely difficult unless the problem was severe and the employee had been repeatedly warned that gossiping behavior was inappropriate and could lead to termination. Without a Union contract, there are still two primary problems. The first is the extent to which employees have been put on notice as to the fact that gossiping is considered a serious breach of conduct and can lead to discipline. The second is the problem of proof; what is the evidence that the employee has engaged in gossip? I will have much more to write about the relationship between discipline and gossip in a later blog.

Ultimately, one has to wonder whether the decision of the City manager to terminate the four employees works contrary to his interests. For one thing, it seems like an overreaction to what is a rather common phenomenon . Also, it can creates increased suspicion that the gossip was in fact true. Most important, regardless of whether the gossip was true or false, reacting formally to the presence of gossip gives it a front page presence and insurers that everyone is well informed about the subject matter.

Basically I do not believe that in most cases gossip can be attacked head on. Instead of reducing the problem it will most often magnify it. Rather, I believe that the only truly effective approach is to promote, primarily through modeling, the kind of behavior that leads to a positive, civilized workplace.