I sat there, diligently typing, as Kimmie rolled her chair over to mine when Georgette left the office.  I knew what was coming.  It happened every day.  One person would leave the office and the other would roll over and say, “Do you know what she did!?”  They would then proceed to unload their bitches about the other person.  Then, when that person would come back and the other leave, it would happen again with the person that was just complained about to me complaining about the other person.  It wasn’t always the same people complaining about the others.  It rotated.   These two about one.  One about the other two.  One about just one.  Hey, at least it was varied.

Finally, one day, Kimmie said to me, “You know what I like about you, Chip?  You don’t talk about other people!”  WHAT?!  I knew better than to engage.  If I engaged, then I would be the one in the middle.   What I learned was that, regardless of circumstance, it’s never a bad policy to just keep it to yourself.

Granted, many of the people irritated me.  Sometimes, they’d irritate me to the point that I wanted to scream…but I just kept it to myself.  I didn’t sit in quiet desperation, I talked to TRUSTED people outside the workspace about how best to deal with a situation but I would not engage in idle gossip.

Let’s face it…we, as humans, LOVE THE GOSSIP!  Don’t engage, keep it to yourself.  Better yet, remember what your mom told you about not saying anything if you don’t have something nice to say.

You’ll gain more respect and people will know that they can trust you.