Well, Happy New Year to all you lovely people at last, and sincere apologies for not emerging sooner from the festive break. Sadly I was caught up in the floods up North and couldn’t leave my gran’s house for days (well, that’s my story and I am sticking to it).
Anyway, two weeks in to my new year fitness regime and naturally I have all but given up. You want to try working at the Decision Marketing Nerve Centre without getting hammered every day – believe me, many have tried and all have failed.
Today is a case in point. You see, as soon as I have filed this nonsense we are all going out to mark the start of McKelvey’s Birthday Weekend (yep, miraculously he’s still alive, although I do have my suspicions that it is only the alcohol in his blood that keeps him going).
Of course, my esteemed boss is nothing if not predictable. Gossip-fuelled lunchtime piss-up at the Bridge Inn, followed by gossip-fuelled curry at the Indian Cottage Tandoori (where else?) and then back to the office to fire off a few arsey emails before heading back out again. It’s tough work but someone’s got to do it.
However, news just in shows that apparently we have been getting it wrong all these years and that gossiping in the workplace can have serious negative impacts not only on your social life but also on your career.
Yep, according to new research by Durham University Business School and NEOMA Business School, not only are gossipers frowned upon by colleagues, they also become socially excluded in the company, and can experience negative career-related impacts as a consequence of their storytelling.
The research was conducted by Dr Maria Kakarika, Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Leadership at Durham University Business School, alongside Dr Shiva Taghavi and Dr Helena González-Gómez, Associate Professors of Organisational Behaviour at NEOMA Business School.
In order to do so, the researchers conducted not one, not two, but three separate studies.
Dr “Killjoy” Kakarika said: “Gossiping is pretty commonplace in all workplaces. Whether it’s a small comment about someone’s work, or something more personal and less work-related, we’ve all engaged in it either through gossiping ourselves or hearing someone gossip.
“But it is highly likely that gossiping can be reduced in the workplace if people were aware that it says much about the gossiper too rather than only about the person they are gossiping about. This workplace gossiping can have real negative impacts on their career progression.”
So, there you have it…proof that gossiping is bad for you. All of which actually makes me grateful that I don’t work in an office surrounded by a bunch of boring academics.
It also raises the question, if gossip is so bad for you, why have you just read this then?
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