workplaceissues.com Monday Motivating Moment: Gossip Hurts

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Monday Motivating Moment

July 13, 2009

Your Weekly Attitude Booster

"Gossip Hurts"

Today's motivator is about an activity that occurs both at home and at work. Every family and every office has a person who seems to make "passing along" information his or her life passion and duty. We give the gossip monger power and encouragement when we listen to him or her. We should also remember that the person who brings us gossip usually also receives some "new" gossip from us before they leave.

We can offer up many reasons why we "pass along" information about others. We may even feel justified in doing so. However, the bottom line is that gossiping is a hurtful activity. Here are some great quotes about gossip.

One gossip to another: "I won't bore you with details. In fact, I've already told you more than I heard myself."
Envy is usually the mother of gossip.
The most useless thing in the world is gossip that isn't worth repeating.
A casual acquaintance is a person you know well enough to talk about but not talk to.
Gossip is the art of saying nothing in a way that leaves nothing unsaid.
Most people don't approve of gossip. Enjoying it is enough.
It is always difficult to sling mud with clean hands.
Gossip always seems to travel fastest over a grapevine that is sour.
Nothing is more annoying than to have someone fail to tell you a piece of gossip that you didn't want to hear.
Gossip research is conducted in a blabatory.
It isn't difficult to make a mountain out of a molehill with a little dirt.
Everyone likes to hear the truth-especially about someone else.
Gossip is something that goes in one ear and in another.
People who gossip are the spies of life.
The paradox about gossips is that they always talk about things that left them speechless.
What gossips hear is never as exciting as what they overhear.
A gossip's greatest fear is having no friends to speak of.
Gossips are people who never give secrets away; they trade them.
Talk about others, and you're a gossip; talk about yourself, and you're a bore.
A gossip is someone with a good sense of rumor, and who can't resist wordy causes.

Affirmation for the Week:
“Before I repeat a story about others, I will ask myself, "Is it true? Is it harmless? Is it necessary?" If the answer is "no" to any of these questions, I won't repeat it.”

Have a "gossip-free" week!

Mary Rau-Foster,

Copyright 2009 by Mary Rau-Foster. All rights reserved.
However, if you find this information helpful, we grant you permission, and strongly encourage you, to print this page and put it on your bulletin board, or download an Adobe PDF file with a printable version. Thank you.

Read the previous issue - “The Symbiotic Relationship”

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