In the Work Place: Friend or Foe?

A Classification Essay I wrote in 2005 about my experience as a dedicated worker in Atlanta with lazy co-workers:

A job is a place to go to make a living. It is not a social gathering place with a paycheck. One should keep this in mind when starting a job and be aware of three types of co-workers to avoid to prevent your place of business from becoming a miserable and hostile environment. Three types of co-workers who can make your life miserable include the gossipers, the haters, and the tattletales. None of these groups present themselves as such in the beginning and it takes time to know all of your co-workers as who they really are. In order to prevent these people from ruining your life, you should always remember, you are not there to socialize, you are there to work; to do your job to the best of your ability in order to make a living and be recognized for your efforts by your superiors.

Gossipers, benevolent in nature, like to talk about other people's business with anyone who is either willing to listen or willing to offer more gossip. These people are usually very friendly and helpful at first. They like to get to know you; find out personal information and befriend you to keep a steady supply of information. They take their information to other gossipers, pass judgment and create personal theories about your life. From one gossiper to another, the information takes the shape of a rumor; much like that game telephone. Gossipers have an uncanny knack for spreading rumors like wildfire throughout every department. Even people you never met know who you are and somehow know your personal business. This leaves you wide open to enemies you didn’t know you had.

Lurking among the benevolent gossipers are the malevolent haters. Haters are people who feel that they are better than everyone else and are threatened by anyone who is actually better than them, or they refuse to play their games of “Hateration”. Gossipers are a pawn for the haters because they are used to collect personal information. With this information, they are able to distort the truth and shape it into something they can use against you. Through gossipers, they are able to spread their rumors through every department specifically for the purpose of getting others to side against you in order to make your life at work as miserable as possible. These haters are also guilty of the notorious he said/she said scenario used to start or create controversy in the workplace.

The last type of co-worker to avoid is the tattletales. Tattletales are usually whiners who are too busy finding other people's faults to gain brownie points with their superiors instead of correcting their own faults. Unlike gossipers and haters, tattle tales reserve their information purely for the purpose of trying to make themselves look better or to cover up their own faults. They only share this information with confidentiality with their superiors. They think they are doing a good thing and are clandestine in their approach, but with everyone in someone else’s business, everyone knows who the tattletale is. They also do not realize that they drive their superiors crazy. Their bosses are not stupid and are well aware of the faults of the tattletale. They know that they are trying to make themselves look better and feel that the tattle tales time would be better spent correcting their own flaws. Their superiors are also not ignorant to the goings on of their employees; tattle tales irritate their bosses because they insult their superior’s intelligence. It is not their job to be a tattletale.

Bosses frown upon all of these types of people but as they say, good help is hard to find. They may have their faults of spreading gossip and contributing to the creation of a hostile work environment, but they are also good at their particular job. The only one they could probably do without is the tattletales. The gossipers and haters can all be advised that their behavior is inappropriate and asked to stop. The main differences between the gossipers and the haters are that gossipers are benevolent in that they start rumors as a form of recreation while haters start rumors with ill intentions. It is best to keep to yourself for a while until your co-worker's true colors start to appear. Then you can decide who you would like to become friends with and who you can trust. At least that way you are not in a hostile situation from the beginning and you are not one of the people contributing to the rumors.