Daniel Marsula, Post-Gazette PSST! Gossip in the workplace can be a good.

By Anya Sostek
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Joa Campise and Dina Monticelli slouch on opposite ends of a Downtown park bench during their lunch hour, letting the sun deepen their tans.

For the two 33-year-olds, who work at the same insurance company and have been friends since kindergarten, lunchtime is about much more than eating. On this day, as on many others, it doesn't take long for their conversation to focus on co-workers. It's a time-honored method of human communication -- otherwise known as gossip.

In the workplace, there's no shortage of topics to discuss around the proverbial water cooler: from office romances to candidates for the next promotion to managers who seem more interested in their careers than in their jobs.

But while gossip -- all too often in the form of "Bob said that Sally said that Susan said that George eats children" -- gets a bad name, it isn't necessarily all negative in the workplace. It can even be (sssshhhh!) productive.

"Gossip greases the social wheels," said Eric K. Foster, a psychologist with Temple University's Institute for Survey Research. "We need to gossip to establish trust, to feel comfortable, to find out all kinds of things that allow us to operate effectively on an everyday basis."

Gossip, according to Dr. Foster, is the positive or negative exchange of personal information in an evaluative way about absent third parties. In other words, it's talking about people behind their backs.

One Australian study catalogued casual workplace conversation and found that 14 percent of it was negative gossip. If actual workplaces are even remotely similar to the one on the TV show, "The Office," the figure is likely significantly higher.

But not all workplace gossip is created equal. There are two types of office gossipers, said Kevin Kniffin, an honorary fellow at the University of Wisconsin: those who gossip for self-serving reasons vs. those who gossip for group-serving purposes.

When a colleague found out Ms. Campise's salary in a past job in a doctor's office, and then proceeded to spread it all over the office in hopes of getting a raise, that was an example of self-serving gossip. But when employees at Ms. Campise and Ms. Monticelli's current company talk about how well certain colleagues have done with sales figures, that might spur other workers to improve productivity.

"If you hear that somebody else is doing better, it might make you step up to the plate," said Ms. Monticelli. "You don't want to hear it, but it makes you say, 'I'll do better.' "

In the mid-1990s, a Continental Airlines incentive program demonstrated the power of group-serving gossip. The program offered hourly airline employees a $65 monthly bonus if the company hit certain percentages for on-time arrivals. The program worked better than expectations, thanks to what business types termed "mutual monitoring" -- co-workers who would talk up the goals and dis slackers.

A 2001 case study in the Journal of Labor Economics found that Continental employees would pressure each other to stay on task or load baggage faster, and chatter about the people who weren't pulling their weight. In other words, gossip -- gossip that paid off.

Even gossip that doesn't necessarily increase productivity can help workers understand workplace etiquette, said Dr. Kniffin. One employee might let another one know that the boss doesn't like messy desks, or communicate the finer points of the office dress code.

"Our research finds that gossip can serve socially redeeming functions," he said.

"Some of those functions include, most simply, communication through the grapevine of the norms of the workplace."

That said, sometimes those norms can get awfully petty.

Cecil Irvin has had numerous run-ins with gossip in the two decades he's worked for the same social service agency. He joked that even the most innocuous comments can set off the whispers among determined gossips, such as, "You heard how he said, 'Hello.' I wonder what he meant by that."

When Mr. Irvin, 56, of Penn Hills, started his job, he said he was all too happy to gossip with the rest of the bunch. But following his assumption of more managerial responsibilities -- and a false rumor about him that almost ended in a physical confrontation -- he now takes a more measured approach.

"I won't initiate the gossip," he said. "However, if I'm included, I will often have things to say. The big key is not passing judgment."

Ms. Campise and Ms. Monticelli say that at previous workplaces, it's been topics such as an employee's messy divorce or sexual orientation that, when discussed ad nauseam, can cross the line from fun to fearsome. "When it gets to a really personal level, it becomes hurtful," said Ms. Monticelli.

Kept light, however, gossip can serve crucial workplace functions: creating bonding time, stress reduction and comic relief.

"Everybody does it, even though they say they don't," said Ms. Campise. "That's how you don't go postal."