The laughter is good exercise segment

I'm on a 90 day wonder diet.  Thus far, I've lost 45 days.

 {boom boom} 

Okay, that's enough.  Don't want to overdo things on your first day. 

I know some people love hurling themselves into the fray but I make a big effort to keep right out of office politics.  Of course, it's the impossible dream to go to work and to expect people to not gossip about other people.  It's what people do, and in some ways gossip can be a positive thing.

For example, if viewed as the general, unspecific spreading of news, gossip can be a way of creating an informational flow.  This is important to us as individuals since it helps us map the emotional terrain we are currently a part of, to - on the fly - pin-point whatever pleasure/reward, pain/punishment or neutral features exist in our current social environment.  And since I have a tendency to be sensitively geared and thrown around by too much excitement, I feel more centred and at home in a neutral environment.  While others relish more exciting times

When seen as a temporary storehouse of information on the world we’re up against – gossip is also helpful to overcome some limitations of body language … which could be defined as a pre-syntax instinct for outward self-expression.  And body language is an ancient form of news spreading employed by almost every living creature since the year dot, because simply put - in the guile-free individual, anyway - a facial or bodily "tic" telegraphs intent.

But the message conveyed in body language is about how we feel not why we feel the way we do.  While gossip, though a matter of individual interpretation, can give explanation for other people’s unexpected behaviour which in the workplace for example, in conversation, can take us from “Watch out, the boss is in a bad mood” to, “I hear she’s having relationship problems” leading to the “aha” factor.  “So that’s what’s wrong”.

So, even though the workers might still sidestep the boss, her evident discontent or displeasure is “felt” by them to be unconnected to the workplace, representing a lesser threat to everyone.  Which shows that, to maintain equilibrium, gossip can be important to groups too.