Negative Effects of Gossiping
at the Workplace
Introduction
The term gossip is derived from its previous reference to female friends of a child's mother who were present at the child's birth and Idly Chartered among themselves, in other words, it's a person who habitually reveals personal or sensational facts about others.
Gossip is a social reality that occurs everywhere in the social world, such as at public forums or in our face-to-face social interaction. gossip conveys a negative message to the mindset of most people.
Many world religions abhor and warn against Idle gossiping. laws were drafted and implemented against gossip mongers and they were punished stringently.
Workplace gossiping for some organizations has negative effects, decreases productivity, erodes morale, and hurts feelings and reputations. This menace of gossiping once unchecked, produces detrimental results for the organization.
Gossiping and its Psychology
Gossip is a reality in the social world. People do it to address their anxieties and gain satisfaction. This gossiping platform communicates aggression, jealousy, manipulation and malicious intent which vary from individual to individual and personality to personality.
That's the reason gossiping has acquired a negative reputation. Different researchers suggest that our conversations contain negative gossip about a third person who is not present.Therefore, provides information about their performance abilities and behavior which is why self-conscious emotions arise and individuals examine their own certain social normative standards with those who are not present at that time resulting in guilt or shame. Accordingly, negative gossip will likely be attributed to higher self-conscious negative emotions starting a vicious cycle of gossip-mongering.
Gossip has a deep-rooted effect on our daily lives, since it pre-occupy our thoughts and feelings, even if an individual is not willingly engaged in the behavior, he or they remain focused on gossiping mood, With an inbuilt sense of arousal, Which transforms into mood modification, developing a reliable and consistent shift in their mood state, embracing it as an addiction.
Gossiping Negative Effects On Individuals
The prevalence of gossiping in an individual's lifestyle is a fact. However, how individuals approach this mindset, whereas an individual or a group takes pleasure and indulges themselves in this addiction of gossiping is what defines this phenomenon of gossip-mongering.
Reputation always plays a crucial role in defining the character of the individual. A good character person has many subtle qualities, one of them is that he or they avoid gossiping about their friends or colleagues. Reputation does not build up in a short period, instead, it is a continuous process. Trustworthiness is showcased through grooming, Breaking trust intentionally destroys repute and credibility. Gossiping or idle talk is a perfect recipe for destroying repute and credibility.
Individuals perceived to engage in idle talk are regularly seen as having less social power and interaction. This style of gossiping destroys your likeability for the individual and pushes him into an isolated spot which subsequently may result in self-inflicted harm.
Gossiping also contributes to a lack of concentration for individuals as they will lack focus in demanding work environments because of distraction, anxiety, stress and delays in assigned tasks.
Negative Effects of Gossiping on Teams and Organizations
Gossiping also contributes to a lack of concentration for individuals as they will lack focus in demanding work environments because of distraction, anxiety, stress and delays in assigned tasks.
Some negative effects of workplace gossiping are:-
Remedies to Avoid Gossiping Cycle
Gossiping is identified as a ubiquitous phenomenon. It is a subversion of power used by people in weak positions using informal information against those in strong positions. Gossip is attached to human existence and will remain an interactive part of human existence.
One of the tested remedies is to provide positive gossiping antidotes To finish off or at least tame the vicious effect of negative gossiping. This strategy must focus on one underlying principle, talk directly, and talk good that delivers more good than harm.
Condemnation of negative talk should be the centerpiece of the strategy. It is possible, once negative gossiping mongers are identified, Discouraged, and tagged as violators of good office order, gossiping will be reduced.
Educating all staff members regarding the negative impact of gossiping and helping them polish their knowledge on the subject through lectures and workshops can help curb this phenomenon. In addition, the Religious podium helps in delivering morally and spiritually correct messages to its target audience.
Highlighting unhealthy effects of negative gossiping on body mind and work output will enable employees to take preventive measures.
Conclusion
Gossip is a social activity and man is a social being, therefore, everyone has a leaning towards gossip. However, negative gossiping propensity needs to be addressed and discouraged so that no harm is caused at the individual and Organization level.