Navigating Workplace Gossip: Can It Be Treated as Harassment?

Hi all, I have been approached by a female colleague who has unofficially reported that her colleague (also a female) has bad-mouthed her to her husband about their official differences. They seem to be on good terms; hence, her husband is also friendly with this colleague. The couple ignored it the first time, but she complained after the accused did it a second time. She wants to make it official as the accused has been talking about how she is in the office, etc.

Can an Official Inquiry Be Done to Treat It as Harassment?

Regards,

As a matter of fact, both female employees need counseling. Please call them separately and advise the first one who informed you about the issue to keep her husband away. Furthermore, she can start sharing the day-to-day happenings with her husband to maintain intimacy.

Additionally, call the second employee, who appears to be a friend and colleague of the complainant, and advise her not to discuss very personal matters with strangers. Here, "strangers" can be interpreted as the spouses of colleagues. When engaging in conversations with others, it's important to stick to generic topics and avoid discussing personal matters about oneself or others, as this could cause offense.

Hopefully, these interventions will yield some positive results. If not, you may need to consider initiating an official inquiry.

While Bhaskar has provided a solution on how to handle the problem at hand, I would like to delve a little deeper.

Interpersonal Environment and Feedback Culture

Is this a sign of the interpersonal environment in your company? Can it be construed that there is a lack of a culture of feedback in the company? Imagine for a moment, whatever disgruntlement that female employee had, if she had expressed it in a professional manner by having a tête-à-tête with her colleague, would it not have strengthened the bond of friendship? Would it not have kept the couple's motivation level the same? How come that female employee did not bother about the consequences of her revilement?

These are not major incidents, but they are harbingers of conflict, groupism, lack of teamwork, etc. The story could be making news or will start making news in the grapevine after a couple of weeks or months. This informal communication shapes the organisation's culture. Therefore, I request you to look at the larger picture as well.

Training and Action

The incident calls for training your staff on office decorum, how to give feedback, how to accept feedback, interpersonal skills, etc. If you have conducted training on all these subjects, then should it be construed that training efforts have failed? Nevertheless, even after the training, if this incident has happened, then the incident merits strong action against the erring employee. This will send a strong message to one and all that training needs to be taken seriously. Training is conducted for implementing the learning in day-to-day activities and not to be abandoned after stepping out of the training hall.

Whether the badmouthing was on a personal or official count, tell the aggrieved employee to submit a written application. That is the starting point for your action.

Thanks,

Dinesh V Divekar

Addressing Workplace Harassment

Ms. Jhuma: It is definitely harassment in the eyes of the victim, while the accused may be thinking of having some fun at the expense of another. But since the victim has formally approached the officials concerned, it cannot be brushed aside as simple banter.

I would agree with Bhaskar that both the ladies need to be counseled and handled sensitively. I think the accused needs to be foretold of the consequences of badmouthing a colleague and spoiling the cordiality in the office. This needs to be tackled properly lest the situation could go out of hand. Everybody has respect for the self, and their ego cannot be hurt so easily. So this calls for immediate action at your end.

Regards,
KK