quote:

Originally posted by SKedi:
Honestly, how would a policy like this be enforceable? Would the company plant a bug in the water cooler, bathroom stalls, etc? Seems to be a very strange policy indeed.

Not a strange policy AT ALL. millions of companies already have a Gossip Policy in place, and more and more HR managers and owners are accepting the fact that this is how people are these days

My former employer actually had a policy on workplace gossip included in the employee handbook! And believe it or not, as managers we weere expected to refer to it during performance evaluations. It was something like "employees are expected to refrain from engaging in workplace gossip during office hours that would negatively impact their productivity or other's productivity." The second part of it was something like "employees should not originate and should avoid getting involved in any workplace gossip that may offend other employees, generate discomfort in the workplace, cause conflict, allude to discrimination, etc."

I don't recall the exact words but I hope this helps.

When HR starts writing gossip policies you start to wonder if HR is needed in a company. Don't they have better things to do to support operations to acheive their results?

Reminds me of those movies about the ex-USSR submariners who are trying to do their job and there is this nerdy 'political officer' guy who runs around spying on them- and in the meantime- get in the way of them doing their job.