Work email gossip and its effect on team morale

Post written by Maya Pillai.

It is a fact that people love to talk about other people and they also show a great interest in hearing about the business of other people. It's simply human nature. Recently, I had the opportunity of watching an American movie named 'Gossip' directed by Davis Guggenheim. Though it had nothing to do with work email gossip, it showed how a rumor or gossip that is nurtured and dispersed efficiently can become a mighty weapon. If you are working in an organization, think  for a moment how gossipy emails effect you and the morale of your team members. 

You will never guess that on an average a corporate email user sends and receives 112 emails everyday. This was reported in a study by Georgia Tech. The study also revealed that 15% of the work related emails can be gossip and this is prevalent at all levels of the corporate hierarchy.

Remember, the term 'Gossip' is a negative word and therefore we are likely to give such emails a negative interpretation. Curbing work email gossip will not only decrease the clutter in your internal mailbox but also increases the productivity of yourself and those around you. 

We spend most of our waking hours at our work place. Can you imagine how highly damaging it can be to be in a place where whispers about your personal/professional life are circulated? Gossip emails can lead to a total breakdown of your performance which in turn will affect the team and the project you are working on. 

Your work life is likely to become uncomfortable and you will find it difficult to work in proximity with your team mates. Misunderstanding between the colleagues and team member can then result in workplace conflict. This in turn has a negative impact on the working relationships with your team members. And if the morale of the team is affected, it can lead to increased episodes of absenteeism and stress-induced sickness. 

While the best defence against a culture of negative workplace gossip developing, is simply not to get involved, we've found that our usage of team based email is an active tool in fighting a gossip culture. Get your system administrator to configure internal mailing system such as unifiedinbox.com where all the team mails can be accessed by the team members. When there is this level of transparency where mails can be read by the members of the team, you'll find there will be a drastic reduction in both inbox clutter and work email gossip.