Can Employees Be Fired For Gossiping at Work?

Gossiping in the workplace is a cyclical issue that never really goes away. 

Let’s face it: Whether the topic is as fluffy as a workplace romance or as tense as a looming layoff, people are going to talk. And it’s unlikely that managers will be able to play Gossip Cop and effectively shut down the rumor mill. 

How can employers keep the office chatter in check? Do you need an official Office Gossip policy? Or can you fire employees for gossiping at work?

A decision from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) offers some great takeaways for HR.

Gossip in the Workplace Example 

In Laurus Technical Institute, an employer in Georgia adopted a “no gossiping” policy and then fired an employee for violating it. Was the termination legal?

Was Gossip Policy Legal?

After several co-workers in her department were let go in a layoff, employee Joslyn Henderson discussed the issue with colleagues. During those conversations, Henderson said she wasn’t sure what was going on, and she was concerned about her job security.

When her former co-workers found new jobs with a competitor, Henderson reached out to them to discuss the possibility of getting a job there, too. She also told her colleagues who survived the layoff about the potential opportunity.

Henderson then took medical leave for a planned procedure. While Henderson was out on leave, the colleagues reported to a supervisor that Henderson had made negative comments about the employer, had looked for a job with a competitor and had recruited them to leave, too.

The supervisor suspended Henderson and conducted an investigation.

After determining Henderson violated the company’s no gossiping policy by engaging in office gossip, the supervisor sent a termination letter, which stated that she was let go for “willful breach of company policies and counterproductive behavior.” 

Among other things, the letter said Henderson was fired for repeatedly going “outside the chain of command by discussing work-related issues with your peers instead of your supervisor, which is an obvious distraction and impedes your coworkers’ ability to effectively do their job” and repeated violations of “the company’s written ‘no gossip policy,’ as outlined in the company’s handbook.”

NLRB Weighs In

An administrative law judge (ALJ) found the employer’s no gossiping policy violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) because it was overly broad. The employer overstepped its boundaries by forbidding all workplace gossip, the ALJ said.

And because Henderson was fired for violating an overly broad policy that violated the NLRA, that meant her termination was unlawful, the ALJ concluded.

The employer appealed the ALJ’s decision, but the NLRB agreed that the policy violated the NLRA. The board said that “the language in the no gossip policy is overly broad, ambiguous, and severely restricts employees from discussing or complaining about any terms and conditions of employment.”

As such, it affirmed the ALJ’s decision and ordered the employer to: 

• Stop enforcing its overly broad no gossiping policy 
• Stop disciplining, “including warning, suspending, or terminating,” any employee who violated the “overly broad and unlawful” policy
• Rescind the policy that prohibited office gossip and inform employees that it had been rescinded
• Reinstate Henderson to her former job or an equivalent position
• Provide back pay to Henderson and also compensate her for any adverse tax consequences of receiving one or more lump sum back pay awards covering periods longer than 1 year.

Takeaway for HR

This case shows that you can’t always fire employees for “gossiping” at work – especially if their talk is about the terms and conditions of their employment, such as their wages, hours or working conditions. That’s not office gossip; that’s an employee’s right.

As you may recall, last summer the NLRB issued an employee-friendly decision in Stericycle Inc., adopting a new legal standard for evaluating workplace rules challenged as facially unlawful under Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act. Under the new standard, employers must narrowly tailor workplace rules to avoid interfering with employees’ rights under the NLRA. 

If you haven’t already done so, review all workplace rules listed in your employee handbook to examine whether they could reasonably be interpreted as overly controlling, and thus illegal under the NLRA. For help assessing your handbook, this checklist from the NLRB provides examples of what employers CAN’T do under Section 8(a)(1) of the NLRA.

Drawing the Line on Workplace Gossip: 4 Keys

Everyone gossips from time to time, so trying to set up your workplace as a “no-gossiping zone” is not only illegal – it’s largely a waste of time. Even so, when office gossip crosses a line, employers need to step in, such as: 

• When an employee is gossiping to or about a customer. At the very least, it’s very unprofessional. And worse, when office gossip spreads outside the workplace – for instance, to or about customers – it could have a negative business impact.
• When office gossip targets someone’s reputation. This can be a tough call because it requires HR and/or managers to make decisions 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 gossiping rises to the level of harassment. Courts have determined that workplace gossip can amount to harassment. When office gossip targets a protected class, HR has to step in and stop the gossiping. Failing to do so could lead to a Title VII lawsuit.
• When office gossip involves confidential company info. 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. 

Remember, office gossip may also be a symptom of a larger problem in the workplace. For example, if managers don’t communicate adequately, that could prompt employees to fill in the blanks based on sketchy information. Under such circumstances, people’s imaginations tend to jump to the worst-case scenario, so the resulting workplace gossip often makes the situation out to be worse than it really is. 

Professional Ways to Say Stop Gossiping

Finally, you can address the problem at the source by helping employees learn how to shut down office gossip. 

Jefferson Fisher is a trial attorney and author who teaches people how to communicate. His short, practical videos have garnered more than 5 million followers on Instagram. 

To stop a person who is gossiping, Fisher recommends using the following phrases:

1. ‘I don’t have an opinion on it.’ Fisher says this signals to the gossiper that you’re not interested in what they’re saying. He recommends using the gossiper’s name, if necessary, to interrupt them.
2. ‘Do you want to talk with them about it?’ Fisher suggests offering to get the gossiper in touch with the person they’re talking about. In Fisher’s view, this calls out the gossiper for spreading info rather than solving their problem.
3. ‘Huh, that doesn’t sound right.’ Fisher says this response is his personal favorite because it takes all the fun out of their gossiping. By making it clear that you don’t believe their version of the story, you’re signaling that it doesn’t align with what you know about the person they’re targeting.

Check out Fisher’s video on What to Say to Stop Gossip.