Being a 'gossip' is good for your reputation

[Still Waters]

Gossip is good for your reputation because it shows you are in the know, according to new research.

And we most enjoy dishing the dirt about familiar people - and the more damaging the better.

Psychologists say at the same time it improves our social standing as a font of information about those we care about.

http://www.telegraph...reputation.html

[Bendy Demon]

So..spreading baseless rumors is supposed to be a good thing?

Obviously not for the person that it is about, I wager.

Doesn't really say anything about the person spreading them if they don't even know whether or not it is true or not.

But then again I learned to take everything I read, especially from sites like the Telegraph, with a 50 lb of salt too.

Isn't it odd that we'd admonish children for spreading lies but suddenly it is supposedly ok for adults to do?

Edited August 16, 2014 by Ryu

[StRoostifer]

Yeah,I'm with Ryu.

If anything, this "study" just showed how boring people and their lives really are.

[+Link of Hyrule]

Depending on your circle of friends, many things can make you more popular. In a drinking culture, being able to handle 20 beer schooners and a bottle of bourbon and still be lucid can make you popular. It doesn't mean it's healthy or good to do so. And while I can handle this (I rarely drink even a third of that, but on rare occasions I have) my old local pub back in Sydney valued me because I was a "peacemaker" - I didn't take sides, and there were a couple of groups who didn't like each other. I was friends with all and they all came to share stories with me because both sides knew that what they told me would not get back to the other camp. I may not be the head honcho kind of guy, but my refusal to 'gossip' added to my reputation and popularity in both groups. Often I'd even be a mediator between the groups to sort out how things went down.

Wow, just reread what I wrote, I didn't mean it to sound so dramatic. There weren't two gangs/clans/factions/etc at war and on opposite sides of the pub, it was a friendly place. But on occasion tempers flared, and when they did I was always the guy in the middle talking and being told both sides, knowing that whatever they said to me would stay with me.

Sorry about the melodrama, hehe. My point was that popularity is a loaded term, and may apply to the general but not to the specific, and more to the thread topic "popular =/= healthy". At least it shouldn't necessarily follow that this be true.

Edited August 16, 2014 by Paranoid Android

[Duke Wellington]

Gossip is good for your reputation because it shows you are in the know, according to new research.

And we most enjoy dishing the dirt about familiar people - and the more damaging the better.

Psychologists say at the same time it improves our social standing as a font of information about those we care about.

http://www.telegraph...reputation.html

Rabids guide to career progression:

Relationships with Colleagues: Identidy the non-managers in each department that hold dominance and influence over their work colleagues. Its important to follow them, make friends with them and build respect with them. These people are future managers and it will benefit your career too if you're onboard with them. Likewise if you make them you're enemy they will stop you getting anywhere.

Relationships with Managers: Learn to follow managers across the orgnisation, make friends with them and gain their respect. Again this can make or break your career ambitions. However by having regular chit-chats with them you gain access to information from across the organisation which your work colleagues lack. Use that information to establish your own dominance and influence over them.

Feedback to Managers: Most managers know little about the workers beyond their names and positions. Only when you do something really good or bad does their attention get drawn to you. Than means when picking who to promote there is very little information on the pro and con list for each employee. Give yourself an advantage by blowing your own trumpet to the managers you've built relationships with so they have a nice big long list of good reasons to promote you rather than your colleagues.

Gossip: Openly confront work colleagues spreading false rumours about you or bad mouthing you and make sure a manager is around to see you doing it. Dont get angry, aggressive or arugumentive. Just ask them normally why they've being saying it and why they think spreading it is acceptable behaviour. Tell them you dont like it, wont put up with it and if it happens again they'll find themselves having to explain their attitude to management. That should let the manager see you're strong, wont put up with bull off work colleagues and embaress the hell out of the gossiper putting them in their place.

Politics: Identify the gossipers who spread negativity in the workplace about the business, managers or workers. Make sure what they say finds it back to the managers and whoever they're saying it about. It damages their relationship by turning those people against them. The result is they dont get promoted.

Your own Attitude: Don't gossip as your career ambition rivals will pick you off using it. The result is it will damage your own reputation stopping you getting promoted.

Edited August 16, 2014 by RabidMongoose

[+OverSword]

This explains much about how some people in business seem to get promotions and kudos regardless of how inept they are in actuality.

[Stubbly_Dooright]

I don't like myself, if I'm talking about someone behind their back. Unless it's good stuff, then I don't. I like to think, when someone confides in me, it stays with me. That usually makes me feel better about myself, and builds confidence with others. Isn't that more important? I don't see how someone gossiping on others is considered a good thing for them. I worked closely with someone like that, and I just don't respect her. I'm glad she left. Even when I talk about her and she doesn't work here anymore, I still feel like I shouldn't do it. I don't see how it's good for you, when it feels cruddy doing it.