People love to talk about other people.
Especially in companies many people tend to love rumors and gossip.
In most cases they are just rumors with no truth to them.
The reason many love them so much is primarily entertainment.
The second reason why gossip is so popular amongst colleagues is because most people love to distract from themselves. If we talk about other people’s mistakes and wrong doings we are shifting the attention towards them and away from us.
The result is that most likely no one will see the flaws in our game.

The gossip culture has gotten so popular that in my opinion it’s not only a distraction from work, which will ultimately hurt the company´s performance,
it’s also a reason people burn out and are suffering from anxiety and fear.

Socrates

Socrates was one of the greatest philosophers in history. In ancient Greece he taught his students many different principles and theories about thinking, speaking and living.
One of those principles is the Socrates filtration system.

There are two key reasons Socrates was teaching this system to his students.
The first reason is that he wanted his students to use their own minds.
Once we hear something we tend to jump on it. Many people are just repeating what they heard without second guessing. Socrates wanted his students to use their own mind in order to differentiate between lies and reality.

The second reason is, Socrates wanted his students to understand that gossip has no benefits. It might be entertaining to some people to laugh at the expense of others but it is certainly nothing that will have any benefits for your own life.

What are the filters Socrates was using?

Three filters

1. Truth

2. Goodness

3. Value
   

Truth:
Socrates always used three filters when he was listening to people talk.
The goal was to only receive useful, true and valuable information. He thought that our time was way too valuable to be bothered with nonsense.

The first filter is truth. Are you absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?" -Socrates
The man replied, “Well, no… I just heard about it and—”

In most cases people will say NO since they just heard about it. The way gossip works is someone began a rumor about someone else. In 99% of the cases we don’t know if what they were saying was true, an exaggeration or a fabricated lie.
Why even bother with things that are most likely not true?

Goodness:
“Alright, so you don’t even know if it’s true. Now let’s try the second filter, the filter of goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something that’s good?” -Socrates
The man replied, “No, on the contrary—”.

As mentioned in the beginning, especially in companies gossip is about entertainment. Most likely this entertainment will come from something potentially embarrassing or funny someone else did or something funny that happened to someone.
If you think about it, who are you gossiping about?
I’d argue certainly not your friends- at least not if they are your true friends. No, most people gossip and talk about people they don’t really like and they love to see them fail and be embarrassed.

Value:
The last filter Socrates was using is called to value filter.

“So you want to tell me something bad about him, but you’re not certain it’s true. Okay let’s try the final filter, the filter of usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful for me?” -Socrates
The man replied, “Not really—”.
Socrates concluded, “Well, if what you want to say is not true, not good, nor useful, then why say it at all?”

So next time you are about to say something about someone, ask yourself this: Does it bring any value?

In conclusion

Socrates wanted his students to learn how to think for themselves. He therefore said: “To find yourself, think for yourself”
At the end of the day rumors and gossip are just about repeating and potentially adding something to a message that we don’t know if it is true or not.
The only thing it does is entertain us, most likely by the misery of others.
It won’t help us achieve anything or experience anything valuable.
The second thing Socrates taught his students was the value of time.
Life is short. Therefore we shouldn’t waste it, talking about the missteps of others or about events that have no value and are most likely completely fabricated.
Especially in companies, it’s easy to detect the unhappiest and most miserable people.
You simply have to look for those who are always gossiping and those who are always talking about other people in a negative way.
Gossip won’t make you happier and it won’t bring anything valuable to your life.
Use your time wisely.

Thank you for reading.