Imagine waking up in the morning after a nice, long sleep and as a nurse, you tell yourself, “I am going to do some good today. I am going to make a difference in somebody’s life.” You set off to work with that noble intention in mind and after arriving at the hospital, you read up on medical records of the patients you are responsible for. As you walk through the hallways with your medical materials in hand, and in mind, you notice a kind of dead silence around you. People are whispering and giving you a side glance as if you did something wrong. You soon realize that people are talking about you behind your back. This is how office gossip begins--it is the same among all workplaces. Just as patients suffer from diseases, professional medical staff can also suffer from office gossip.
We laid out some guidelines on how to approach gossipers and how to react in case it becomes overwhelming. Following these steps will help you retake your professional life from your colleagues and back into your hands.
1. Nursing Your Way out of Gossip:- When it comes to patient care, a nurse typically identifies the problem, collects data about the disease, determines how to resolve the matter, executes a solution, and follows up with the patient to ensure that everything is okay and going according to plan. As a nurse, you can implement the exact same scheme when dealing with gossipers. Assess the situation and gather as much information as you can about the rumor spreading around. Do not fall prey to gossip that has no merit at all. Do not stoop down to the level of the gossipers and start spreading your own rumors about somebody. Address the people who are talking about it and try to clarify the whole situation. Whatever misconception they have of you, your job is to show them that they have misunderstood the situation. It is all about being professional and humble in the approach. No need to get agitated or overexcited; simply be calm, cool, and collected and people will eventually stop.
2. Ignore the Haters:- Be an example to everyone else in the workplace and continue with your work while your colleagues waste time talking about you behind your back. Gossiping only negatively affects your work performance if you pay attention to it. By giving credence to gossip, you are playing into their hands. By ignoring it, you refuse to play the game by their rules. Even if a gossiper confronts you about a rumor, simply shut that person down by talking about something else. Gossipers feed off the fact that you are being affected by the rumor. By instantly changing the topic of conversation, you are making it clear that you are a professional nurse who has come to work to do one thing – work! This will shift other people’s mindsets for the better and they will follow your lead and do their job rather than waste time gossiping about you.
3. Change the Mindset of Your Coworkers:- A good way to address almost every single person in one shot is to raise the issue at your next staff meeting. This is an important matter that should be dealt with, as it can be quite disruptive if left unattended for too long. You can make your argument that insinuations or rumors of any sort are upsetting to everyone’s work environment, not just yours, and do not belong in a place where people are doing their best to heal people and cure them of their ailments. Creating a positive and warm environment significantly helps in getting in the right mindset.
4. Don’t be Part of the Problem:- In some situations, the gossip might not be about you but about somebody else. You arrive at work and you hear through the grapevine that your colleague did this or that. Instead of you being the subject of the rumor, it is somebody else. Rather than participating in the gossip like everybody else, solve the problem by not partaking it in. By not participating, you save yourself from belittling yourself and stop perpetuating counterproductive work culture. Just as you have no interest in people spreading rumors about you, you should also have no interest in spreading rumors about others. By speaking up and confronting the people responsible for instigating the rumor in the first place, you are setting an example in the workplace that others can look up to, especially those who may be new to the field. You are a professional nurse, so it is best to act like one. By standing up to gossip, you are the solution to stopping it. These are just some techniques that a nurse can employ to avoid being drawn in and affected by rumors that are baseless and serve no purpose. Ignorance is bliss, and that is absolutely true in this case. Go on with your business and you will notice that no matter what anybody says, it will have no effect on you.
What are some tactics you use to keep your head in the game?
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