Do you take part in office gossip? I don't like to think of myself as a gossip, but I have to admit I often do it. In my turbulent industry, I justify my behavior - perhaps wrongly - by reasoning that gossip helps me get information and figure out what is going on.

    Amid a rise in office gossip, researchers are disagreeing over whether it is fundamentally good or bad. Some defend it as a way of building bonds among people and sharing essential information. But others hold that office gossip can be savage and destructive, as the New York Times reports. （At one company, PrintingForLess.com, which has a strict no-gossip policy, gossiping about colleagues can become a firing offense.）

    In one case analyzed in a scholarly journal, middle school teachers' gossip about their principal became so poisonous that the principal retaliated, many teachers fled the school and students' test scores declined. In this case, gossip amounted to 'a form of warfare that brought everyone down.'

    On the other hand, less malignant gossip that stops short of repeating lies or breaching confidences can serve as a source of understanding. Gossip helps us analyze the motivations of other people, and enables those low on the food chain, in particular, to understand how power is used in their organizations, says this New York Times article. It is relaxing, it brings people together, and as a pastime it beats gambling, drinking or doing drugs, this reasoning holds.

    Whatever side you take, gossip is here to stay. It is a universal human practice and it is too complex to say it is either good or bad, a University of Colorado researcher says. When researchers at Case Western University asked students to cite lessons they had learned from gossip, the students gave these examples: 'Infidelity will eventually catch up with you' and 'Cheerful people are not necessarily happy. ' This positive dimension of gossip was featured recently in the newsletter Work & Family Life.

    I have seen gossip help co-workers in some places where I have worked, giving rise to compassion or offers of support when someone is going through hard times. On the other hand, I have also seen gossip - over an office romance, for example - distract people from their work and even force unwanted transfers.

    辦公室里的八卦你會參加嗎？我不想讓人覺得我八卦，但我也承認我常會參與其中。在我這個千變萬化的行業中，我認為我的行為是合理的，理由是八卦可以幫我獲得信息，弄清形勢──這樣想也許是錯誤的。

    隨著辦公室八卦的興起，研究人員對它到底是好是壞也存在不同看法。一些人為它辯解說，這是同事間建立關系和分享必要信息的一種途徑。但根據《紐約時報》（New York Times）的報導，也有人認為，辦公室八卦可能十分低級，具有破壞性。（一家名為PrintingForLess.com的公司制定了嚴格限制八卦的政策，談論同事的閑話可能面臨解雇。）

    在某學術期刊分析的一個案例中，中學教師對他們校長的八卦影響很壞，以至于校長進行了報復，很多教師逃離了學校，學生的考試成績一落千丈。在這個案例中，八卦成為了一種損人不利己的戰爭。

    另一方面，沒有重復謊言或泄漏機密的不存惡意的八卦可能帶來互相理解。《紐約時報》的文章說，閑談可以幫助我們分析其他人的動機，尤其是那些處于食物鏈低端的人可以了解所處組織中的權力是如何使用的。它是一種放松，可以讓人們融洽，作為一種消遣它比賭博、飲酒或吸毒要好，這種判斷也不無道理。

    無論你站在哪一面，八卦都不會改變。美國科羅拉多大學的研究人員說，這是人類普遍存在的，很難說清到底是好是壞。當凱斯西x大學的研究人員要求學生列出從八卦中得到的教訓時，學生舉出的例子有："最終將眾叛親離"和"快樂的人不一定幸福".最近的工作？家通訊提到了八卦的積極一面。

    我看到八卦在我曾工作過的一些地方給同事帶來了好處，增進了感情或給遇到困難的人提供了支持。另一方面，我也看到八卦──比如針對辦公室戀情──分散了人們的工作精力，甚至帶來了意想之外的變動。