05.04.09 The 7th Driver of Negative Gossip

7. Double-Dealing’ 

‘Double-dealing’ is to do with working behind other people’s backs to their detriment or disadvantage. A ‘double-dealing’ tendency is another stimulus for negative gossip. One way this could happen would be where the monger finds himself or herself trapped between ‘divided loyalties’. For example, the person cum gossiper may be expected to please two parties that do not see ‘eye to eye’. To survive that ‘tight spot’, the monger could revert to using gossip as a ‘balancing act’ by saying one thing to one party and the exact opposite to the other, so that she or he stays in the good books of both albeit conflicting parties.

Do you recall the client who alerted me about the rumour that was brewing against us? Initially, I had thought that he was an empathiser since each time I dropped by his office from then on, he sounded sorry for the way things were turning out thence giving me the impression that his organisation would continue to give us business irrespective of the raging rumours. However, some months later, I was alarmed when he lashed out that there was no way that our business discussions would continue until I ‘sorted out’ the misconceptions related to the rumour. That was when it started dawning on me that he could have been ‘double-dealing’ the whole time.

Nehemiah’s narrative was not short of double-dealers either. A case in point are the nobles that seem to have been playing a balancing act between him and his arch enemy, Tobiah. For instance, as already said, we see how the double-dealing disposition of Tobiah’s in-laws could have fueled the negative gossip against Nehemiah, given the letters they would send to Tobiah updating him about the wall-rebuilding project; while telling Nehemiah how nice Tobiah was, even when he (Tobiah) was intimidating Nehemiah at the one and the same time (Nehemiah 6:17-19).

Looking at the JuaLink story, Lulu exhibited some ‘double standards’. When Edisa Kitchens failed to deliver, you may recall how the publicity officer tried to please the new publicity manager, Faraja, by making statements that seemed to agree with the manager’s concerns about Edisa’s bad food. However, when Lulu met the human resource officer, Obed, she ridiculed Faraja and Neema’s comments about the very same food, hoping to please Obed. Another indicator of Lulu’s double-dealing tendency was displayed when she used gossip as a ‘divide and rule’ tool, with the purpose of setting Neema and Faraja against each other. You may remember how she would tell the young graduate that Faraja ‘uses’ people, while falsely reporting Neema’s poor performance to Faraja at the same time. You may also have noticed that Lulu’s motive was to divide the team by creating enmity between Faraja and Neema while portraying herself as the rose between the two thorns; hoping that she would have each of the two women in her direct control.