Supervisor & Manager gossip

FloydL · November 2003

Does anyone have anything on-point that would help address liabilities posed when a Supervisor and Manager openly discuss their (negative) opinion of one employee in front of another employee who is a co-worker of the first employee?

I know defamation is a pitfall, but I've been unable to find something useful that didn't contain some degree of malice or other issue unrelated to the "gossip" itself. Confidentiality, although useful, doesn't exactly hit on-point, because the complaint alleged to have been made was never expressed to employee #1 and is not reflected anywhere in their file. Rather, the comment is simply disparaging to that employee and I'm back to defamation.

Thanks,
Floyd

SMace · November 2003

I'll take a hack. I do not see any legal liability unless the ee is in a protected class and their comments could be construed as harassment. Sounds like bad judgement to me. They committed the cardinal sin of supervision and have now lost the respect of everyone they supervise. What are they saying about others. If you are their supervisor, tell them that when they have a problem with an employee identify the problem as an unacceptable behavior that must stop and communicate that directly to the ee. If you are not their supervisor, talk to him/her and they should have that discussion. it's time for them to get out of middle school and walk into the real world.

marc · November 2003

Steve, you are much more tactful than I was going to be, which is why I ended up not responding earlier. Agree with your analysis of the liability exposure.

I get very angry when supervisors share confidential information about ees in front of other ees, or even unrelated third parties. It is inappropriate on so many levels. It is bad enough they talk with other supervisors, we know it happens and they often just need to check their thinking, but when it turns into gossip, it can have an impact not considered by the originators of the gossip. You find out how small your community really is when you show up at some party to find complete strangers discussing one of your ees and some issues they are having. The same thing happens in a company and of course the information gets skewed and altered as the news travels, growing ever more sensational.

Training is part of the key, but nipping this in the bud with some sort of 'coaching' or PIP for the supervisors in question appears to be in order.

I'll jump off the pulpit now.

rad · November 2003

Marc, I'm with you, I had a difficult time restraining myself earlier. It happens here all the time, the supervisors stand around discussing their employees right in front of me, the manager (who could care less and is just as bad), and anyone within earshot. To make it worse they call them "idiot" and "stupid", its awful. I am often struck speechless when I hear what they are saying. If I can hear it, others can too and I know it has gotr back to the employees they bashed. Now how can they ever ask for help? And when they make mistakes again they will be called an idiot again...

System · November 2003

Yep, Ive got that type of management too and when I go home I call them all IDIOTS,FOOLS, and MORONS!!!!!

System · November 2003

Hey Rad, maybe it's a MA thing. I was warned about it before I moved here from CA. I actually appreciate the New England style of mmm, forthrightness- just not in the workplace!

FloydL · November 2003

Thanks everyone, it's nice to hear the voice of reason is still alive and well out there. I appreciate your time (and patience aforethought) in my search for something more concrete than simply "an idiot in a NO IDIOT zone", as the employee and comments in question (on this particular event) are fortunately not in a covered class, so I'll simply break out the common sense spray and try to get rid of the - uh - er - current ambiance.

Thanks Again,
Floyd

Supervisor & Manager gossip

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