Words Can Heal
Celebrities like Goldie Hawn and Tom Cruise, and Senators
McCain and Lieberman have joined the quest for a kinder gentler
nation by aligning with Words Can Heal. It's a non-profit group
with an educational and media campaign to cut back on gossip
and verbal violence in all areas of life. Their workplace kit,
Words at Work, includes tips, articles and reading resources.
At number one on their "The List of Top Ten Tips for Words in
the Workplace" is "Bite Your Tongue before you gossip. Your
tongue may hurt but your colleagues and reputation won't." (To
that I'd like to add, "Bite your tongue before you bite the
hand that feeds you.) The workplace kit also features a fact
sheet and well-researched article on gossip. A surprise for me
was that men gossip as much if not more than women; it just
goes by different name, like "shop talk" or "networking." The
bigger surprises were these statistics from a recent survey:
Every week, 51 million are hurt by gossip, 63 million are lied
about, and 117 million Americans gossip. Gossip has been a
major challenge for me in the workplace; I've seen it destroy
other women's careers and projects, and I've been the target.
So, I'll say no more—and besides, my tongue hurts from biting
it so often.
|
