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I
have been doing some research for a friend of mine who needs to approach the
subject of workplace gossip in a humorous way, as not to offend employees. Do
you have any suggestions regarding humorous quotes in this area? She wants to
make a point that lasts.
Signed,
Gossip Stopper
Dear Gossip Stopper:
You want to get a point across, I assume, that gossip can hurt and I also assume that these quotes will have to be distributed in some way. Why don't you read and quote from our Q&A Archive pertaining to rumors, and include some of the rumors that workers say hurt them--one of the worst was a malicious slanderous untrue one that stated a worker was a moonlighting pornographer. Many others, not so malicious, nevertheless hurt feelings such as the woman who came to a former lover's workplace with a gun and was suspended from her workplace because ...Oh well, it is so confusing, I'll let you read it.
These questions that tell workers stories of how gossip hurts will be read and passed on. Another approach is to write a fictitious quote of someone you can name such as "Know All Tell All."
For example:
Mrs. Hubbard, who lives in a shoe has so many children she doesn't
know what to do.
---Know All Tell All
John Smelly, who works upstairs, has so much body odor that nobody knows
what to do, so let's whisper about it.
---Know All Tell All
S. Delicious, who knows how to cover up with make up, has seduced the
M. Desirous.
---Know All Tell All
Yet another approach is more direct. Taking the Know All Tell All aside and confronting her/him about how harmful talking about others' problems can be. An even less humorous, yet more helpful tact, is to schedule morale-building, quality improvement skull sessions. Such issues as what hurts and builds morale as gossip versus cheerleading will come to the surface.
Here are some quotes about rumors and gossip you can post or distribute:
Ah, well, the truth is always one thing, but in a way it's
the other thing, the gossip,
that counts. It shows where people's hearts lie.
~ Paul Scott ~
The things most people want to know about are usually none of their business.
~ George Bernard Shaw ~
Count not him among your friends who will retail your privacies to the world.
~ Publilius Syrus ~
Gossip is sometimes referred to as halitosis of the mind.
~ Source Unknown ~
No state sorrier than that of the man who keeps up a
continual round, and pries
into "the secrets of the nether world," as saith the poet, and is
curious in
conjecture of what is in his neighbour's heart.
~Marcus Aurelius Antoninus~
Be not unwilling in what thou doest, neither selfish nor unadvised nor
obstinate;
let not over-refinement deck out thy thought; be not wordy nor a busybody.
~Marcus Aurelius Antoninus~
That proverbial saying, "Ill news goes quick and far."
~Plutarch~
The idea of strictly minding our own business is moldy
rubbish. Who could be so selfish?
~ Myrtle Barker ~
A gossip is one who talks to you about others; a bore is
one who talks to you
about himself; and a brilliant conversationalist is one who talks to you about
yourself.
~ Lisa Kirk ~
A cruel story runs on wheels, and every hand oils the
wheels as they run.
~ Ouida ~
I don't care what anybody says about me as long as it isn't
true.
~ Dorothy Parker ~
One eye witness is better than ten hear sayers.
~ Titus Maccius Plautus ~
Who gossips to you will gossip of you.
~Turkish proverb~
The real art of conversation is not only to say the right
thing at the right
place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
~Dorothy Nevill
WEGO might know all but doesn't tell all!
Bill Gorden & Dan West