Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part series by Valyncia C. Raphael-Woodward and Ashley J. Davis on managing workplace conflict in higher education. Through practical scenarios and evidence-based approaches, the series explores common employee relations challenges facing HR professionals and managers. The series begins with “Conflict Icebergs: What’s Beneath a ‘Difficult’ Employee’s Behavior” and continues with “Gossip and Culture-Building: Managing Morale and Trust in the Workplace.”
Summary: Gossip often gets a bad reputation, but its impact depends on how it’s used. Understanding the difference between harmful gossip and healthy information-sharing can help organizations strengthen trust and workplace culture during periods of uncertainty.
Rapid disruption and organizational strain often create the perfect conditions for rumors and speculation to flourish, especially when employees feel they lack clear, timely information. In these moments, workplace gossip becomes more than casual chatter, functioning as a mechanism people use to interpret events, fill information gaps and regain a sense of control. While gossip can serve social and even pro‑social purposes, it can also escalate tension, distort perceptions and undermine trust when the context is already fragile.
Understanding the complex nature of workplace gossip helps clarify the distinction between helpful and harmful forms and reveals how inadequate communication can unintentionally fuel negative narratives. HR and managers play an important role in reducing the likelihood of destructive rumor-spreading during organizational crises by shaping team norms, maintaining transparency, and fostering a positive culture.
Rumors Fill the Void: A Scenario
Here is a scenario to consider.
Mike was a provost of a small liberal arts college in the Midwest. The college had faced multiple factors triggering austerity measures, including budget cuts and layoffs. On a Friday morning, news broke about a misappropriation scandal. Mike resigned, effective immediately, that Friday afternoon. On Monday, a short statement was issued by the college press office that Mike’s resignation was accepted and that he’d be returning to his faculty post. The statement also noted that an investigation was pending but no other information was available at the time.
Without further information, employees began talking to each other. Over the weekend and continuing into the following weeks, they took to internal listservs and social media to share their personal experiences with Mike involving money. Many critical statements were posted concerning internal processes and assumptions of guilt. There was a growing sentiment that Mike evaded accountability that would ultimately result in further faculty and staff layoffs and other budget cuts.
Aisha, who leads a small hybrid team of staff, noticed that her team had spent a significant amount of their in-office time chatting about the issue. She also noticed them sharing articles and information on their team Slack channel. She wanted her team to remain productive and focused, while not feeding the rumor mill.
Constructive Information vs. Harmful Gossip
Negative workplace gossip may breed and fester in times of increased tensions and difficult times. Yet, in this scenario, gossip itself is not the root or core problem. Rather, this scenario highlights the ways in which a lack of communication can impact the culture and morale of the workplace at the team level. Often, managers do not get concrete guidance on how to balance public relations issues within their teams. Further, there tends to be general negative stigma around gossip, particularly in the workplace.
In fact, gossip is an often misunderstood concept. In the workplace, gossip can lead to a range of feelings: from feelings of belonging and empowerment to exclusion, confusion and even isolation or despair.
In a Harvard Business Review article, Amy Gallo broadly defines gossip as talking about someone who is not present in the conversation. While some managers may view gossip as something to prevent, Gallo argues that not all gossip is harmful. Workplace gossip can help employees share information, make sense of events and build social connections.
It’s important, however, to distinguish between constructive information-sharing and harmful gossip that may damage someone’s reputation. During periods of change and uncertainty, gossip, rumors and speculation are more likely to spread — especially when employees lack transparent and frequent communication.
As a manager, Aisha must ensure her team remains focused on operational success, despite the tempting distraction of the latest campus news. Given that she has to navigate the additional dynamic of onsite and remote team members, whatever strategy she chooses to get the team to refocus will need to work for the entire team. For example, while the onsite employees may be more impacted by physical watercooler chat, the fact that there’s been communication on the team chat channel indicates that the chatter is occurring both in person and online.
Deterring Negative Gossip
This scenario emphasizes some difficult challenges that HR may have to navigate in collaboration with the central communications or public affairs office. While managing public relations may bring its own set of challenges, unit managers need to be considered as well, as they have their own role to play in addressing the department- and individual-level effects this scenario can create in terms of productivity, team culture and morale.
Given how complex gossip can be, and how impossible it is to prevent, the keener strategy may be to create ways to deter negative gossip and incentivize neutral and positive feedback in the workplace. These may include: employee listening strategies, such as climate and culture surveys and feedback loops to identify concerns, respond to employee feedback, and demonstrate continuous improvement; ongoing pulse checks, such as engagement surveys; employee resource groups; exit and stay interviews; and event evaluations and suggestion boxes.
Additionally, having more transparent communication and ensuring that HR is included in the communication strategy could help ward off department- and team-level conflict, which managers and HR often bear the burden to address. Here are some steps HR may want to prioritize as they support building a positive culture:
- Review training and include more precise definitions about gossip to ensure managers and teams are able to distinguish between positive and negative gossip.
- Review policies to ensure they adequately address the negative components of gossip, particularly rumors, social undermining and harming the dignity of others.
- Establish a general code of conduct or university values statements, if HR finds that policies are lacking. Policy review is particularly important, as policies tend to be robust in terms of addressing sexual harassment and other forms of unlawful discrimination or retaliation, but miss the mark for problematic conduct that is not related to protected status.
While workplace gossip is an inevitable challenge for HR and managers, it does not have to be destructive. Managers and HR should not have to police the watercooler, but they do have an obligation to identify and respond to factors that feed negative gossip.
A better understanding of positive and negative gossip can help HR equip managers and teams with tools to prevent conflict from occurring or engage proactively if issues regarding negative workplace gossip arise. By defining clear team norms, creating cultures of direct feedback, and leveraging an intentional employee listening strategy, HR can help deter the harmful impacts of gossip and shift toward positive and trusting workplace cultures.
About the Authors: Valyncia C. Raphael-Woodward is the executive director, Employee and Labor Relations at University of Southern California, and Ashley J. Davis, Esq. is the associate ombuds at University of Washington.
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