八卦和謠言是辦公室潤滑劑 How rumour and gossip
Gossip and rumour are part of the fabric of working life — they entertain, inform and connect people, but they can also ruin reputations, destroy trust, create bad attitudes and even reduce productivity.
八卦和謠言是辦公室生活的一部分——它們讓人們獲得娛樂和信息，讓人際關係更密切，但它們也能敗壞名聲、摧毀信任，造成不良心態，甚至降低生產率。
What distinguishes the helpful consequences from the harmful is the intention behind what is said, how the information is perceived and acted on, and the length of time it is allowed to spread and fester.
結果有益的八卦和謠言與結果有害的，其區別在於背後的意圖，信息給人何種印象、促成何種行動，以及信息被允許傳播和發酵的時長。
As well as providing informal communication networks, gossip and rumour act as psychological spaces for perceived unfairness and power imbalances, or emotions such as jealousy, resentment, boredom and even hatred. When it is not possible to confront an issue or person directly, chats with colleagues become a way of offloading frustrations.
除了提供非正式交流網絡，八卦和謠言爲人們眼中的不公和權力不平衡，或者嫉妒、怨恨、無聊，乃至仇恨等情感提供了心理空間。當人們無法與一個問題或者一個人正面對抗的時候，與同事閒聊成爲了一種發泄鬱悶的方式。
People’s anxieties heighten at times of change and uncertainty, such as when an organisation restructures, changes leadership or undertakes a merger or acquisition.
出現改變和不確定性的時期，比如組織發生重組、領導人變更或進行併購時，人們的焦慮情緒會增強。
Such situations lead people to worry about how they will be affected. Who will be promoted or demoted, whose job will disappear or be changed, and who will be paid what?
這些狀況會使人們擔心自己將受到何種影響。誰會得到晉升或者被降職，誰會失去飯碗或者職位發生變動，誰的薪酬又會是多少？
In the absence of adequate information from management, people naturally create narratives to fill the void. The longer executives take to make decisions, the more anxious people become and the more rumours fill the vacuum and make sense of the uncertainty.
在管理層公佈的信息不足的情況下，人們會自然而然地提出各種說法來填補這一空白。高管們做決策花的時間越長，人們就會越焦慮，就越會有更多謠言來填補真空，試圖爲這種不確定找到合理解釋。
Nicholas DiFonzo, professor of psychology at Rochester Institute of Technology and co-author of Rumor Psychology , says: “The common denominator seems to be fear — we’re afraid of what this person in the organisation will do to us; we’re afraid of how [the] engineering [department] is going to get more money and we in marketing are going to get less money; we’re afraid of what this rival company is doing — and so we spread rumours about them.”
羅徹斯特理工學院(Rochester Institute of Technology)心理學教授、《謠言心理學》(Rumor Psychology)的合著者尼古拉斯迪豐佐(Nicholas DiFonzo)表示：“共同的要素似乎是恐懼——我們擔心組織裏的這個人會對我們做什麼；我們擔心工程（部）將得到更多資金，而我們市場部的人得到的資金將會變少；我們害怕對手公司正在做的事情——因此我們傳播關於它們的謠言。”
Spreading negative rumours can make us feel better in the short term, but means we are less likely to take responsibility for either our predicament or obtaining the information we need from the powers that be.
在短期內，傳播負面謠言會讓我們感覺更好，但這也意味着我們不太可能會爲我們所處的困境或從當權者哪裏獲取信息負起責任了。
Professor DiFonzo nevertheless believes organisations could not survive without informal information spread by word of mouth. “There’s a wealth of information that is not in the procedural manual and nobody is going to write it down,” he says.
儘管如此，迪豐佐教授依然認爲，沒有口口相傳的非正式信息傳播，組織就無法存續下去。“流程指南以外還有豐富的信息，沒人會把它們寫下來，”他說。
“It’s the kind of information you have to hear through the grapevine: what the organisational norms are, who you should approach and who you should not approach, and who gets paid what, the kind of information that is often secret.”
“這是你必須靠謠傳聽來的信息：組織的規範是什麼，你該接近誰，不該接近誰，某人的薪酬是多少，就是那種通常保密的信息。”
Studies have shown that while rumours reduce trust in management and harm the attitudes of staff, they do not necessarily affect productivity.
研究表明，儘管謠言降低了員工對管理層的信任，對員工的心態造成了不良影響，但謠言並不一定會影響生產率。
Prof DiFonzo explains: “If I hear rumours about my company being downsized and [the] management won’t talk to me, there’s a great deal of uncertainty. I may feel worse about [the] management, I may trust them less, but I may work harder so that if there is a downsizing I will be retained.”
迪豐佐教授解釋道：“如果我聽到謠言說公司正在精簡人員，而管理層不置可否，事情就有很大的不確定性。我可能會對管理層感覺更糟，我可能更加不信任他們，但我可能會更努力工作，這樣假如公司真的在精簡人員，我會被留下來。”
A senior executive of a large UK technology company, however, found that rumours left unchecked affected sales when disparaging stories spread about a product, resulting in staff being reluctant to sell it.
然而，英國一家大型科技公司的高管發現，放任謠言流傳會影響銷售——貶低某產品的謠言四處傳播，使員工不願銷售這款產品。
“When rumours spread across the sales teams that a product doesn’t work or is difficult to implement, there may be an element of truth in them. But often the rumour is exaggerated and means that no one wants to deal with it...慍渀攙 so sales decrease.”
“當銷售團隊中流傳的謠言稱一款產品沒有效果，或者難以生效時，這些謠言或許包含真實成分。但謠言往往誇大了事實，意味着沒人想要解決這個問題……於是銷量也會降低。”
Although rumour often holds some truth, people’s interpretation of events tends to avoid complexity and personal responsibility, and is often directed towards an individual, a department or an outside rival.
儘管謠言往往包含了一些真相，人們對事件的詮釋往往會迴避複雜性和個人責任，通常會指向一個人、一個部門或者一個外部競爭對手。
Mannie Sher, director of the group relations programme at the Tavistock Institute and adviser to companies and organisations, believes rumour is often a larger systemic phenomenon that often targets an individual.
塔維斯托克研究所(Tavistock Institute)羣體關係項目總監、企業和組織顧問曼尼∠爾(Mannie Sher)認爲，謠言通常是一種以個人爲目標、範圍更大的系統性現象。
He says: “Rumours are about ‘an individual who acted badly’ because individualising a systemic problem is easier than to say to an organisation, ‘we have a problem which as a team we have to resolve’.
謝爾表示：“謠言與‘一個表現不好的人’相關，因爲將一個系統性問題個人化，比對一個組織說‘我們有一個必須作爲一個團隊共同解決的問題’更容易。”
“Very often the route taken is to identify an individual who may have acted badly, and for the group to use him to project the group’s incompetence. We can say the CEO is a control freak and it’s because of him that we’re in this mess.”
“通常的套路是，確定一個可能表現不好的人，然後羣體會把羣體的無能投射到這個人身上。我們可以說，首席執行官是個控制狂，就是因爲他，我們才陷入一團糟的境地。”
Gossip, as opposed to rumour, is often about social networking and bonding and can be entertaining, irresistible and even witty. Because it is so pleasurable, people tend not to consider the harm it causes.
和謠言不同的是，八卦通常與社交網絡和人際關係相關。八卦可以是富有娛樂性、不可抗拒，甚至詼諧的。因爲八卦如此令人愉悅，人們往往不考慮八卦引起的害處。
Although positive gossip occurs, it is the negative gossip most people enjoy more because it makes us feel better about ourselves and reassures us, because we are not the subject of it.
儘管正面的八卦是存在的，但大多數人更喜歡負面八卦，因爲這種八卦讓我們自我感覺更良好，更自信，因爲我們不是被八卦的對象。
There are many motives for malicious gossip. Projecting our own feelings of inadequacy on others by putting them down rids us of our bad feelings and makes us feel superior. Gossip allows us to retaliate against perceived unfairness, act out passive-aggressive and envious feelings and redress power imbalances. People revert to gossip when they believe they cannot confront an issue directly.
人們有很多動機進行惡意的八卦。通過貶低他人，我們把自身的不足感投射到他們身上，讓我們擺脫不好的感覺，產生優越感。八卦讓我們報復我們眼中的不公，用行動表達我們的消極抵抗情緒和嫉妒感，糾正權力失衡。當人們相信自己無法與一個問題正面對抗時，就會訴諸八卦。
There is cachet to be gained from it. The office gossip gains influence as he or she collects valuable information while also creating a wealth of contacts. “In” and “out” groups then form around those “in the know” and those not.
八卦還能讓人獲得聲望。隨着他或者她收集到寶貴的信息，同時與許多人建立聯繫，辦公室八卦就產生了影響力。然後“知情”和“不知情”的羣體就會圍繞着那些“瞭解內情”和那些不瞭解內情的人形成。
A woman who came to me for psychotherapy related how a colleague who was also a friend denied she was having an affair with the boss despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
一個找我進行心理治療的女性向我講述，她的同事兼朋友否認其與老闆有染，但有可信證據指向相反的事實。
The betrayal she felt was aggravated by feelings of unfairness, powerlessness and distrust because of privileges her colleague was enjoying as a result.
她的同事因此享受了種種特權，這使這位女性產生了不公、無力和不信任感，加重了她遭受背叛的感覺。
Because she could not confront either party directly, she joined in the office gossip to clear her confusion, but primarily to have an outlet for her feelings.
當事雙方都是她無法直接對抗的。因此她加入了辦公室八卦，以搞清楚到底是怎麼回事。但從根本上說，這樣做是爲了發泄她自己的情緒。
“I had my head messed up when she told me it wasn’t happening and I wanted to know what evidence people had, which was pretty compelling,” she says. “When it’s the boss, it is not bad behaviour that you can confront.” Joining in the gossip eventually left her feeling even worse when she was verbally attacked for spreading the news by a colleague who did not believe it.
“當她告訴我沒那回事時，我的腦子一團亂，我想知道人們有什麼證據，結果發現那些證據相當有說服力。”她說，“因爲當事人是老闆，你不能對抗這種不良行爲。”因爲散播這消息，她被一個不相信此事的同事言語攻擊——加入八卦最終讓她感覺更糟。
There is a positive element to gossip, though. It acts as a safety valve for grievances, allowing pent-up feelings to be released in a way that minimises potential damage. Rushing to a quiet corner with a colleague for a whispered rant is preferable to a flare-up with your boss.
不過，八卦也有積極作用。八卦可以作爲疏導不滿的安全閥，讓壓抑的情緒用一種最大限度減少潛在傷害的方式釋放出來。和一個同事衝到一個僻靜的角落低聲抱怨，總比衝着你老闆發火更可取。
