New research: Nearly 15 Percent of Work Email Is Gossip

New research: Nearly 15 Percent of Work Email Is Gossip

When leaders “embargo” or “close hold” information about upcoming changes, I try to explain the conversations are already happening. The question is—do you want to be a participant? Here are data that show “negative” gossip, characterized through a Natural Language Text Processing analysis, was in fact 2.7 times more prevalent than positive gossip…” Early participation in the conversation can mute this effect.

This link goes to a one-page summary of research that has mined the Enron trove of e-mails—a nice buy-product of their shenanigans. http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?nid=134011

On the other hand: “Gossip gets a bad rap,” said Gilbert, an expert in social computing who runs the Comp.Social Lab at Georgia Tech. “When you say ‘gossip,’ most people immediately have a negative interpretation, but it’s actually a very important form of communication…a means to share social information.”

~Jeff Brooke