Toolkit - Dealing With Rumors in the Workplace - NYTimes.com.
A common theme in all the advice is that you need to address the rumors. You shouldn’t pretend they are not there.
“In the absence of information, employees will make up their own information and that information soon snowballs into a full-blown rumor,” Zoey Day said on Helium.com, which describes itself as “a knowledge cooperative.”
In other words, ignoring the rumors is simply going to increase employee concerns, distract them from doing their jobs and make the situation worse.
STRAIGHTFORWARD AND SCRIPTED If the whole company is affected by the rumor — say, you are going out of business, will be acquired, will be forced to fire people, are about to undergo a radical downsizing (selling off plants, dropping product lines, closing offices) — addressing employees individually is not the way to go, the experts say. The message will quickly will spread through the company grapevine and may get distorted along the way.
You want to communicate to everyone at once and prepare your remarks. Employees are going to parse everything you say. Ad libbing is not the best strategy, no matter how sincere your words. (photo by stuartpilbrow)
Comment -- Open book management can be a very effective strategy for short circuiting rumors in your small business workplace. When all your employees know what's going on all the time with your financials, there's less chance for that surprises and uncertainty will pop up and breed gossip. As this post notes, it's all about constant communications with your employees and vendors. Michael Rogers
