When it's time to walk away

General talk about office stuff

Kim (207.179.175.29) -

The gossip around offices these days have gotten completely out of control. Myself as an assistant manger, try not to get involved with this. But, if my staff come to me with a problem, then I must stand there and listen.

I try to decide what is necessary and what I need to walk away from.

Have any of you experienced this kind of thing and what steps have you taken to keep yourself not involved?

Comment #1 lois from new york -

Something like that happened before. What I did was mention very respectfully that I did not want to get involved, and did not want to know anything about what was going on with my boss and a certain co-worker heh. I was very nice about it. I explained that I would not feel good knowing these things about people at my workplace and would like to keep away from that. The person took it well and people stopped coming to me as often BUT it still did happen, just not as often. I guess it's impossible sometimes. Argh!

Comment #2 rowena105 from Anywhere You Want -

The best way to handle it is to ask a question when they first start talking. Ask them if it has anything to do with their work? Usually that will stop them in their tracks because they know it isn't. Then if they say no then remind them that they are here to work and not to gossip.

If that doesn't work then say that you are here to work and not to gossip and you have a lot of work to clear up before the end of the day.

If that doesn't work then just tell them you don't listen to anything about others in the office unless it directly affects you or your department in a work related way.

Any one of these usually work.

Comment #3 Sweetness from Earth, the Universe -

Those are pretty good suggestions. One of the things that I do when the gossips come around and want to chat is to ask them how busy they are. If they say not too busy then I say "Great, how about giving me a hand with......" and hand them a file or whatever it is you are working on and start explaining what needs to be done.

This usually reminds them that they have a document or something or other that they forgot about and the boss needs it in about an hour. Then they scurry off to their own station.

The other thing that this does is stop them from coming to your station because they know you are going to try to "palm" some stuff off on them that you should be doing yourself. LOL

Then, of course, you will be the brunt of the gossip but remember if they are gossiping about you they are leaving someone else alone and they are leaving you alone to do your work.

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