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。

　　八卦和谣言是办公室生活的一部分——它们让人们获得娱乐和信息，让人际关系更密切，但它们也能败坏名声、摧毁信任，造成不良心态，甚至降低生产率。

　　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。

　　结果有益的八卦和谣言与结果有害的，其区别在于背后的意图，信息给人何种印象、促成何种行动，以及信息被允许传播和发酵的时长。

　　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网络，八卦和谣言为人们眼中的不公和权力不平衡，或者嫉妒、怨恨、无聊，乃至仇恨等情感提供了心理空间。当人们无法与一个问题或者一个人正面对抗的时候，与同事闲聊成为了一种发泄郁闷的方式。

　　People’s anxieties heighten at times of change and uncertainty, such as when an organisation restructures, changes leadership or undertakes a merger or acquisition。

　　出现改变和不确定性的时期，比如组织发生重组、领导人变更或进行并购时，人们的焦虑情绪会增强。

　　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?

　　这些状况会使人们担心自己将受到何种影响。谁会得到晋升或者被降职，谁会失去饭碗或者职位发生变动，谁的薪酬又会是多少?

　　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。

　　在管理层公布的信息不足的情况下，人们会自然而然地提出各种说法来填补这一空白。高管们做决策花的时间越长，人们就会越焦虑，就越会有更多谣言来填补真空，试图为这种不确定找到合理解释。

　　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。”

　　罗彻斯特理工学院(Rochester Institute of Technology)心理学教授、《谣言心理学》(Rumor Psychology)的合著者尼古拉斯迪丰佐(Nicholas DiFonzo)表示：“共同的要素似乎是恐惧——我们担心组织里的这个人会对我们做什么;我们担心工程(部)将得到更多资金，而我们市场部的人得到的资金将会变少;我们害怕对手公司正在做的事情——因此我们传播关于它们的谣言。”

　　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。

　　在短期内，传播负面谣言会让我们感觉更好，但这也意味着我们不太可能会为我们所处的困境或从当权者哪里获取信息负起责任了。

　　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。

　　尽管如此，迪丰佐教授依然认为，没有口口相传的非正式信息传播，组织就无法存续下去。“流程指南以外还有丰富的信息，没人会把它们写下来，”他说。

　　“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。”

　　“这是你必须靠谣传听来的信息：组织的规范是什么，你该接近谁，不该接近谁，某人的薪酬是多少，就是那种通常保密的信息。”

　　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，尽管谣言降低了员工对管理层的信任，对员工的心态造成了不良影响，但谣言并不一定会影响生产率。

　　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。”

　　迪丰佐教授解释道：“如果我听到谣言说公司正在精简人员，而管理层不置可否，事情就有很大的不确定性。我可能会对管理层感觉更糟，我可能更加不信任他们，但我可能会更努力工作，这样假如公司真的在精简人员，我会被留下来。”

　　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，英国一家大型科技公司的高管发现，放任谣言流传会影响销售——贬低某产品的谣言四处传播，使员工不愿销售这款产品。