HAVE I GOT DIRT FOR YOU

A plan for putting workplace gossip to productive use.

As Darmon, a senior lecturer at the Hague University of Applied Sciences, observes at the beginning of her book, workplace gossip is a spectrum; workers who never do it are seen as “socially inept,” whereas those who do so constantly are seen as unworthy of trust. But, Darmon argues, there's a “sweet spot”—a point at which gossip can serve useful and beneficial purposes in an organization. Citing a wide array of psychological and workplace studies, popular works of nonfiction, and journals such as the Harvard Business Review, Darmon analyzes what exactly gossip is, how it’s classified, and how it’s disseminated in a group of co-workers. Some sources look at negative aspects of gossip, but others address the humanizing effect of such communication and its ability to convey positives such as empathy and nuance. The author also shows how it can convey important information about workplace culture: “Let’s say that you know that your boss…has a reputation for hitting on a record number of employees,” she writes. “If a new, young colleague comes to work for your department, and…you notice the sleazebag flirting with her but choose to say nothing, you will eventually be judged quite poorly.” Over the course of the book, Darmon switches smoothly between such well-drawn hypotheticals and more technical analyses. As a result, the work does a pitch-perfect job of both eliciting the personal, universal nature of gossip and treating it seriously as a method of communication. Readers who've ever indulged in such conversation—and who hasn’t?—will look at the subject in a new light after finishing this book.

A sharp, lucid, and compelling study of a relatable but rarely discussed topic.