July 6, 2007
Gossip Gossip Gossip
As long as I have worked at this unnamed, undisclosed firm that I have worked, gossip has been the central activity among all of my coworkers (myself not excluded). Months and years have gone by, attorneys are hired, fired, paralegals leave, staff employees disappear and reappear, and yet gossip lives on and never dies. Who's sleeping with whom. Who's cheating on their spouse/boyfriend/girlfriend. Who got hammered at the last social event and danced on the bar. Who's pregnant. Who can't get pregnant. Which employees messed around in one of the vacant offices. Who got fired and was "asked to leave." Who got hired based purely on connections and not merit. Who gained weight. Who lost weight. Who doesn't wash their hands after they flush. Who's engaged. Who got divorced. Who doesn't do their job. Who overworks. Which partner made a pass at a young staff member. Who drives what. Who lives where. Who makes how much. Who makes more than us. It's neverending. It's addictive. We all know it's bad but it's the only thing that keeps an otherwise dull, monotonous, unfulfilling corporate environment exciting. The males always claim they don't get involved but half the gossip comes from them and their observations. The females claim it's not malicious or out of jealousy but a form of entertainment or bonding with fellow coworkers. Why do we do it? Why can't we stop? To be continued. . .
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I’m even getting to the point where I feel that people who aren’t interested in speculating on the lives of other people at work are boring. I mean, who couldn’t be interested? But the fact that I feel this way suggests that I agree with the point about gossiping being about bonding. Anyone that is unwilling to partake in the convo is being antisocial. My closest friend at work and I initially got to be close over talking and observing everyone else’s behavior. No, our relationship at this point is not based purely on gossip, but in the beginning that was how we would bond—we would moisten the dryness of the day with trying to out-juice the other’s story. Gossip, I’ve found, even has it’s own cycle if you’ve practiced it enough with consistent gossip-partners. First it starts off with sharing shallow rumors, rolling eyes and giggling. Then it moves on to scrutinizing any possible situation, painstakingly analyzing underlying thoughts and desires of the alleged parties. Then, when you get REALLY good, you diagnose them with psychoanalyses of why they are the way they are—insecurities, repressed feelings, perhaps even with a family tree of scandals or a Venn diagram displaying possible behavioral patterns.
But come on. I got a good education. I can carry on some complex conversations. (Can’t I?) Is it simply the fact that I do menial tasks on a daily basis and am losing brain power every second that I conform to the ease of talking about people? Or is it the fact that I do menial tasks on a daily basis and am losing brain power every second that I find the only interesting things involve her skanky, inappropriate-for-work- outfit-CLEARLY-worn for him , or his all-too-frequent-trips-to-her-office-when-they-don’t-even-work-on-the-same-projects? I tell myself that this can’t be the case because I’m MUCH more interesting than that. I can talk about MUCH broader topics than that. But do I? …. I justify it by saying that it’s what gets me through the day….but this sounds sadly like a coke addict—in which case such an excuse would be appalling.
Yet understandable.
*Sigh.*
Ok, clearly this is your own struggle of should-I-or-should-I-not-gossip-at-work. I can only tell you how *I* feel about it. Honestly, when it's a lighthearted issue, I think it's ok. I really don't feel guilty about gossiping at work. It's just a means of making the day go by faster and making the day a bit more interesting. Yes, that's probably pathetic but no one can really understand unless they're in our shoes (and offices). I don't think this is an issue of whether I'm capable of complex, more serious discussions; those are for AFTER work, over wine, with friends (or even coworkers). Plus, let me point out that those discussions aren't lacking either. So unless the gossip gets in the way of my work, it is simply something to make the environment more fun and bearable.
Post a Comment