Gossip raises efficiency at workplaces

Office gossip is usually frowned upon as a waste of time, but a new study suggests it should be encouraged because it helps isolate shirkers, making for a more efficient work-place. The study also shows that up to nine in 10 everyday conversations are gossip. But according to the research, carried out by a team of Dutch psychologists, it is not necessarily malicious. Gossip is used to warn coworkers about colleagues who are not pulling their weight. And even the risk of gossip can help pressure underperformers into contributing.

Gossip is often seen as exclusively self-serving behaviour aimed at manipulating others and influencing them in some malicious way, but people most often use it to gather and validate information, to enjoy themselves with others, and to protect their group, report Dutch researchers in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology.