新概念雙語：八卦和謠言是辦公室潤滑劑

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(guān)系更密切，但它們也能敗壞名聲、摧毀信任，造成不良心態(tài)，甚至降低生產(chǎn)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(jié)果有益的八卦和謠言與結(jié)果有害的，其區(qū)別在于背后的意圖，信息給人何種印象、促成何種行動(dòng)，以及信息被允許傳播和發(fā)酵的時(shí)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(wǎng)絡(luò)，八卦和謠言為人們眼中的不公和權(quán)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(dāng)人們無法與一個(gè)問題或者一個(gè)人正面對(duì)抗的時(shí)候，與同事閑聊成為了一種發(fā)泄郁悶的方式。

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(xiàn)改變和不確定性的時(shí)期，比如組織發(fā)生重組、領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人變更或進(jìn)行并購時(shí)，人們的焦慮情緒會(huì)增強(qiáng)。

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(huì)使人們擔(dān)心自己將受到何種影響。誰會(huì)得到晉升或者被降職，誰會(huì)失去飯碗或者職位發(fā)生變動(dòng)，誰的薪酬又會(huì)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。

在管理層公布的信息不足的情況下，人們會(huì)自然而然地提出各種說法來填補(bǔ)這一空白。高管們做決策花的時(shí)間越長，人們就會(huì)越焦慮，就越會(huì)有更多謠言來填補(bǔ)真空，試圖為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(xué)院(Rochester Institute of Technology)心理學(xué)教授、《謠言心理學(xué)》(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(dān)心組織里的這個(gè)人會(huì)對(duì)我們做什么;我們擔(dān)心工程(部)將得到更多資金，而我們市場(chǎng)部的人得到的資金將會(huì)變少;我們害怕對(duì)手公司正在做的事情——因此我們傳播關(guān)于它們的謠言。”

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(nèi)，傳播負(fù)面謠言會(huì)讓我們感覺更好，但這也意味著我們不太可能會(huì)為我們所處的困境或從當(dāng)權(quán)者哪里獲取信息負(fù)起責(zé)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。

盡管如此，迪豐佐教授依然認(rèn)為，沒有口口相傳的非正式信息傳播，組織就無法存續(xù)下去。“流程指南以外還有豐富的信息，沒人會(huì)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(guī)范是什么，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，盡管謠言降低了員工對(duì)管理層的信任，對(duì)員工的心態(tài)造成了不良影響，但謠言并不一定會(huì)影響生產(chǎn)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(jiǎn)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(huì)對(duì)管理層感覺更糟，我可能更加不信任他們，但我可能會(huì)更努力工作，這樣假如公司真的在精簡(jiǎn)人員，我會(huì)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(fā)現(xiàn)，放任謠言流傳會(huì)影響銷售——貶低某產(chǎn)品的謠言四處傳播，使員工不愿銷售這款產(chǎn)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...so sales decrease。”

“當(dāng)銷售團(tuán)隊(duì)中流傳的謠言稱一款產(chǎn)品沒有效果，或者難以生效時(shí)，這些謠言或許包含真實(shí)成分。但謠言往往夸大了事實(shí)，意味著沒人想要解決這個(gè)問題……于是銷量也會(huì)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。

盡管謠言往往包含了一些真相，人們對(duì)事件的詮釋往往會(huì)回避復(fù)雜性和個(gè)人責(zé)任，通常會(huì)指向一個(gè)人、一個(gè)部門或者一個(gè)外部競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)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)群體關(guān)系項(xiàng)目總監(jiān)、企業(yè)和組織顧問曼尼∠爾(Mannie Sher)認(rèn)為，謠言通常是一種以個(gè)人為目標(biāo)、范圍更大的系統(tǒng)性現(xiàn)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(gè)表現(xiàn)不好的人’相關(guān)，因?yàn)閷⒁粋€(gè)系統(tǒng)性問題個(gè)人化，比對(duì)一個(gè)組織說‘我們有一個(gè)必須作為一個(gè)團(tuán)隊(duì)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(gè)可能表現(xiàn)不好的人，然后群體會(huì)把群體的無能投射到這個(gè)人身上。我們可以說，首席執(zhí)行官是個(gè)控制狂，就是因?yàn)樗?，我們才陷入一團(tuán)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(wǎng)絡(luò)和人際關(guān)系相關(guān)。八卦可以是富有娛樂性、不可抗拒，甚至詼諧的。因?yàn)榘素匀绱肆钊擞鋹?，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。

盡管正面的八卦是存在的，但大多數(shù)人更喜歡負(fù)面八卦，因?yàn)檫@種八卦讓我們自我感覺更良好，更自信，因?yàn)槲覀儾皇潜话素缘膶?duì)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(dòng)機(jī)進(jìn)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(chǎn)生優(yōu)越感。八卦讓我們報(bào)復(fù)我們眼中的不公，用行動(dòng)表達(dá)我們的消極抵抗情緒和嫉妒感，糾正權(quán)力失衡。當(dāng)人們相信自己無法與一個(gè)問題正面對(duì)抗時(shí)，就會(huì)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。隨著他或者她收集到寶貴的信息，同時(shí)與許多人建立聯(lián)系，辦公室八卦就產(chǎn)生了影響力。然后“知情”和“不知情”的群體就會(huì)圍繞著那些“了解內(nèi)情”和那些不了解內(nèi)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(gè)找我進(jìn)行心理治療的女性向我講述，她的同事兼朋友否認(rèn)其與老板有染，但有可信證據(jù)指向相反的事實(shí)。

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(quán)，這使這位女性產(chǎn)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(dāng)事雙方都是她無法直接對(duì)抗的。因此她加入了辦公室八卦，以搞清楚到底是怎么回事。但從根本上說，這樣做是為了發(fā)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(dāng)她告訴我沒那回事時(shí)，我的腦子一團(tuán)亂，我想知道人們有什么證據(jù)，結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)那些證據(jù)相當(dāng)有說服力。”她說，“因?yàn)楫?dāng)事人是老板，你不能對(duì)抗這種不良行為。”因?yàn)樯⒉ミ@消息，她被一個(gè)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。八卦可以作為疏導(dǎo)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(gè)同事沖到一個(gè)僻靜的角落低聲抱怨，總比沖著你老板發(fā)火更可取。