Gossip

I have recently increased my awareness of gossip and just how rampant it is. This past week, I was an active player in a situation that was ripe for the gossip grapevine. And thanks to some very wise counsel, I was prepared for the "well-meaning" concern and questions people had for me.

Someone in the office had a medication reaction and I was asked to make an assessment and determine what the next step should be. I was proud to be asked to do this and that my opinion was valued in this manner. I made my assessment and the person went to the hospital and consequently was out for about a week.

My supervisor is very saavy and wise to the goings-on in the office and was very sensitive to how "tongues wag". She left me a voice-mail and cautioned me that people might ask me what happened but I needed to respect the person's privacy and offer no information other than the person "didn't feel well".

For several days, i was expecting someone to ask me what happened. Nobody did. Whew! I was prepared but didn't need to use my preparation. Then I was driving with a coworker to an appointment when out of the blue, I was asked, "So, were you here when so-and-so went off on so-and-so....I heard that ..........."

Whoa!

In my head, warning bells were going off, sort of like that loud buzzer when security has been breached in a movie....but I heard "GOSSIP....GOSSIP....GOSSIP" in my head. I quietly, listened while taking a deep breath. I had the tantilizing information my companion wanted. It was a really strong temptation. Truly, the information that came to me in this conversation was new to me so I could honestly say, "I had not heard that."

But my heart was not content to just dismiss this attempt to gossip. So, I said, "I don't know what happened and I guess it really is her story to share, if she wants to." And with that, the conversation shifted to another topic.

It made me think about how many times I have been in a conversation like this and have not been made aware ahead of time that the tempation to gossip was coming, and I have succumbed. I don't think I can ever do that again without thinking about this scenario I experience and realizing that the power I had was to either further the rumor-mill and contribute to malicious gossip or I could protect the privacy of the other party as best I could and keep the information under my hat.

I hope that I can continue to grow in this area.