How to change gossip mongers into positive communicators

Gossip is good, up to a point, which is why the CEO of Red Hat, Jim Whitehurst, actively encourages it at his firm.

“Rule of thumb when it comes to office gossip: If you have more truth telling at the water cooler than in meetings, you've got a problem,” he explains in an interview with Business Insider.

“You want to get to a place where people feel safe to share their thoughts, feelings and opinions about a situation, beyond the water cooler.”

But there comes a point where it gets too much. It was named as a top productivity killer in research by Harris Poll, commissioned by CareerBuilder, earlier this year, and was also named as a sign of a terrible employee in a list compiled by Business Insider and credited to Lynn Taylor, author of ‘Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant: How to Manage Childish Boss Behaviour and Thrive in Your job’, The Workplace Therapist, and US News & World Report.