There is a Spanish proverb that goes, “Whoever gossips to you will gossip about you.” But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, according to the May issue of Working Mother magazine. This is especially true for women, who are not often tied into the “old-boy network.” How else will they know what’s really going on in the office?
Men get away with gossiping by calling it networking, Nigel Nicholson, a professor at the London Businees school, tells the magazine. But he adds, networking is a “term that was invented to make male gossip respectable.”
Of course, mean-spirited lies–and we all know it happens–are what gives gossiping a bad name. Says Nicholson: “In workplaces where people are afraid or mistrustful of each other, gossip turns malign.”
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