A wound by a sword is easier to bear than a wound by gossip.
—Pythagoras (ca. 570 t o 490 BC), from a fragment.
To work with a team of people to service clients, you need an atmosphere where gossip can’t grow and flourish. Years ago, I was part of an organization which, in its final years, actually ran by gossip. Everyone knew it, and it eventually brought down the firm. Partners, assoicates, non-lawyer and even clients were victims. Confidences meant nothing, and mediocrity creeped into all aspects of firm life. The leadership was too weak to stop it. People were divided into four camps on the very issue of gossip, which was recognized too late by all as a serious problem. The players: (1) the “gossips”, both lawyers and non-lawyers; (2) non-gossips, mainly lawyers, who knew that people traded in untrue, half-true or irrelevant rumors about others, but were too weak or afraid to do anything about it (95% of lawyers never get my vote for being brave when things get tough); (3) non-gossips working away at their tasks who believed the gossip because it never occurred to them people would gossip; and (4) people who complained about the gossip, a minority with big books of business who left the firm first. If you have gossips in your organization, they do not change–ever–and they don’t have rehab or 12 step programs yet for gossips. And don’t tell me office gossip is normal. It’s abnormal, contagious, and poisonous. Usually, it takes two people to keep gossip going in a firm. But no matter how many you have, fire them all quickly.