Keep Your Enemies Close & Your Colleagues Even Closer

You hear a bustle at the water cooler. Voices whispering about the latest gossip. "Did you hear what happened to her yesterday?" You walk over and all of a sudden, everyone stops talking. They look around, not making eye contact with you. You can almost hear the silent whistling as they look everywhere but at you.

Has this ever happened to you? I know it has to me. You feel like everyone is talking about some big office secret, but you are either the last one to find out (from some secret source) or you will never know.

Office gossip can be something interesting to hear, but it's always best that you keep it to yourself. You don't want to end up on the other side of the rumour mill. You want to earn your co-workers' trust, but not at the expense of losing your credibility. This is one of the most important parts of your job. Without it, you might as well go work in a factory, putting widgets together (no offence to widget makers).

From day one, earn the trust of your co-workers and managers. Besides, that’s one of the main reasons why you were hired in the first place. After a while, you will notice that people become more comfortable with you and trust you with more responsibilities as well as telling you about parts of their personal life. But don’t forget the golden rule:

If you hear gossip, keep it to yourself!

If you do fall into the rumour mill one way or another and it becomes more of an issue than you can handle, mention it to your manager (if you feel comfortable). If your manager is the type of person that only likes to deal with you on a professional level, speak to your HR representative. They will be more than happy to run through the steps you can take together to rectify the situation.

If you are looking to relieve a little stress from hearing information about the last bad piece of gossip, click here to get a little snicker.

Just remember to keep the laughing to a quiet roar, since the person next door might start spreading the buzz around.

If you have any questions, suggestions or comments, please feel free to click on the "comments" link below and leave some feedback.

Until next time,

Take care – of your clutter!