Everyone gossips, so to try to set up your workplace as a “no-gossip zone” is largely a waste of time. You can draw a line, however, on what’s OK and what’s not.

Whether the topic is as fluffy as a workplace romance or as tense as a looming layoff, people are going to talk about it, and only head-in-the-clouds managers will ever believe they can play Gossip Cop and shut all of it down. 

There are times, though, when you will have to play hardball with gossipers: 

When an employee spreads gossip with or about a customer. People whose gossiping spreads outside the workplace - for instance, to or about customers - can have a killer effect on business. 

When gossip rises to the level of slander. This is a tough call because it requires HR or another manager to be judge and jury, and make a decision about how harmful the gossip is. Rule of thumb: When  someone’s spreading stories that harm another employee’s  reputation, err on the side of caution and order the gossiper to stop. If you let it go, you could find yourself party to a lawsuit. 

When it involves confidential company information. It could be financial or product data that could cause problems if made public. The company has a right to keep such (presumably legal) information under wraps, and employees who whisper about it to others are violating confidentiality rules. 

Keep in mind that sometimes gossip is a symptom of a larger problem in a workplace. For example, maybe managers just don’t communicate adequately and employees just fill in the blanks based on sketchy information. In those situations, the gossip often makes the situation out to be worse than it really is.

Tags: firing, gossip, lawsuit, layoff, slander