Tory Johnson: Don't Snoop, Don't Tell

Oct. 31, 2005 -- -- Gossip is embedded in the American workplace culture. While it can serve to build and nurture solid professional relationships, which is a good thing, gossip can also be problematic -- most of all for the people who possess the information.

When you learn anything new, it's often impossible to keep it to yourself. It's natural to want to share information instead of suppressing it.

Sometimes it's in an effort to protect someone; other times it's out of anger and outrage for what you've learned. But it can get you in trouble.

This isn't limited to playgrounds or childhood antics. The majority of us are guilty of gossiping. A recent study by ISR, a global employee research firm, found that more than 60 percent of American employees said rumors are usually how they first hear about important business matters.

All of us are bound to face questions of ethics at some point or another, but it's important to remember that hearing something is one thing, snooping for it or acting on it is another.

Take a look at any of these common scenarios:

Experts are divided on how to react to these situations. Some say if you obtained the information in confidence, you shouldn't act on it. In other words: keep your mouth shut.

Others say that once you've learned something -- no matter how it was obtained -- you have an obligation to do something.

I don't think it's so cut and dried.

Let's take the first scenario: If you rifled through check stubs that don't belong to you, you can only blame yourself for the discovery of information about other people's earnings. You can't ask for a raise by making known that you somehow "found" these numbers. (Going forward, it's just smarter to avoid such snooping since it's bound to cause you nothing but headaches and heartache.)