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Dear
Doctor,
How can we eliminate rumors in the workplace?
Signed,
Ear To The Ground
Dear Ear:
Rumors are forever. We can not eliminate them because they spring from uncertainty, curiosity, and sometimes meanness--we humans exhibit all three of these conditions.
We are uncertain because the workplace is not transparent. We never know the whole story, past, present or future; consequently, we test the waters to learn what is good and what is polluted. Management can do much to eliminate false rumors by frequent and accurate two-way communication. Open-door and open-book management can prevent, correct, and answer the needs which workplace rumors satisfy.
Curiosity springs from wanting to understand human foibles--the juicier the better. Social rumors grow from one-upmanship--"they are like me in their drives, ambitions, and weaknesses." So we learn how to live by watching others and by trial balloons about what is acceptable and taboo.
Malicious rumors spring from a "I'm OK-she or he is not OK" attitude. They may be meant to make another look bad. They can't be prevented even if one walks on water--Jesus was rumored to hang out with sinners and loose women. More talk rather than less talk helps to straighten such talk.
Veracity is what grows from the marketplace of ideas. We learn to buy what is of high quality and to ignore the bad. Misunderstanding will always be the rule rather than the exception; however, I hope these thoughts will help you see gossip in a different light and to find ways to make what is true be the rule rather than the exception. Do write us again about how you are dealing with the rumors that bother you.
WEGO is a collaborative search for what is good, what is true and what is beautiful.
--Bill Gorden