05.07.04 The 2nd Organisational Consequence of Negative Gossip : Silent Venting

‘Silent Venting’

Silent venting refers to the act of expressing and displaying strong negative emotions such as anger, frustration and sadness, without vocalising those feelings or openly sharing them; or confronting the initiator of those emotions.

When we finally got an inkling of the possible generators of the defamatory rumour against us, we realised that given those people’s positions, we had no ‘muscle’ to report them to a higher authority in the effort of seeking for vindication, fairness and justice. Put simply, they were ‘untouchables’, at least so we heard. Therefore, all we could do was to cry before God and lament ‘silently’.

In the story of Nehemiah and the wall-rebuilding project, we see that despite the complaints that he had against Tobiah’s, Sanballat’s and Geshem’s relentless gossip, Nehemiah would report his frustrations to God to begin with rather than suffering or venting silently. And, indeed, it took long before Nehemiah could respond to the gossipers’ lies, although he eventually did (Nehemiah 6:1-14).

Looking at JuaLink, the negative gossip against ‘selling the organisation to foreigners’ generated panic, yet no employee could dare approach any member of the management team for clarifications. Instead, staff resorted to lamenting undercover. In another scenario, we see how Faraja gave up complaining openly about Lulu’s behaviour in management meetings since immediately afterwards, Njia and Obed would update Lulu about Faraja’s concerns, thereby fueling more gossip against the publicity manager. No wonder Faraja eventually resorted to venting in silence.

Therefore, a culture that is steeped in negative gossip can push team members to develop a tendency of complaining behind closed doors or in corridors, fearing that their feedback could fuel more gossip which could be used against them if the employees were to express themselves openly. In other words, the members get accustomed to venting in private. This creates a situation where they refrain from sharing any information with supervisors, which causes feedback gaps, leading to communication breakdowns and ultimately, a decline in performance.