Before Fueling the Rumor Mill, Ask: Is It True?

Hey, did you hear the latest about…? Well, what I heard was…That’s not what I understand…
Out of boredom in the workplace, employees, from top brass to folks in the trenches, love to dabble in a favorite pastime: Fueling the rumor mill.
As defined by the on-line Encarta® World English Dictionary © 1999:
Rumor: noun
1. a generally circulated story, report, or statement without facts to confirm its truth
2. general talk or opinion of uncertain reliability
vt to pass along information by rumor (usually passive).
According to union members who make meals at Crest Haven Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and prepare Meals on Wheels, the rumor mill has them whipped up worse than meringue atop lemon pie that they will be ousted from their jobs and replaced by private workers.
They confronted their panel of bosses the Board of Chosen Freeholders most recently on May 26, and earlier in March about their employment concerns.
County Administrator Steve O’Connor, who would be well advised not to have his blood pressure taken after such sessions, repeatedly told the green T-shirt clad union members, in so many words “It just isn’t so. No, there is no plan to end your jobs. Read my lips, N.O.”
But Lamar “Woody” Lewis, Local 3596 vice president, cited a daily newspaper article as pointing to the fact.
Wrong, said O’Connor, who stressed he never said such a thing. It wasn’t a county press release that stated the misinformation, and he offered that he should have, but did not, asked for a correction.
Well, once a rumor is out there, the more it’s told, the more validity it seems to gain.
Freeholder Ralph Bakley Sr. said as much. His words brought to mind Norman Rockwell’s painting of people telling a rumor, mouth to ear, mouth to ear. Finally it gets back to the person who started it, oh, how red that face gets.
Seems that is the exact problem Local 3596 President Joe Garifo is having with rumors around the county offices and workplaces.
He told freeholders, with union members at arms’ length, that rumors are a huge problem to him. Like dandelions in the front yard, you can kill six, and a dozen more grow up in their place. What’s a union president to do?
Rumors, especially in these skittish economic times, fuel fears that grow with time. People who barely make ends meet fret when they hear (mis-hear, really) bits of information. They grow in the night into 800-pound gorillas that will not leave.
Worse, Garifo’s management counterpart, O’Connor, confessed that he has the exact same problem, but at the management level. There is just no way to put a lid on rumors.
A little knowledge is dangerous. Witness how any fearless weekend handyman can, without license, buy a power saw and embark on a project with little understanding of construction techniques.
It’s the same with rumors. Not only in the county, but everywhere, they are destructive of morale. Once someone hears what they want to hear, a little embellishment added for spice, a cutting remark about someone they don’t like anyway, and presto: a juicy rumor that is fit to pass along.
Itching ears eagerly await such ripe information, wrong or (seldom) right.
What can be done to end rumors? It’s harder than can be imagined, much like getting rid of a wasp’s nest.
Bakley told union members to believe absolutely nothing until they see it written in black and white on their official union bulletin boards. Then, and only then, can they take it to the bank. Until then, it’s only so much hot air.
Rumors cannot be eradicated. They will survive like radioactive waste, having a half-life almost as long as such nuclear trash.
Truth can vanquish many rumors, as can trust. When communication is sketchy in any organization, rumors will fill the void, just like asphalt patch will fill potholes.
Rumors, much like those filled potholes, are no equal for a really smooth, paved surface, although they seem to work for a while.
The existence of rumors can never be removed, that is part of human nature. Someone always has the need to feel important by embellishing the truth just a tad. Pretty soon, from that little spark, the entire forest is ablaze.
But rumors can be greatly reduced by having a truthful source of information upon which every person can rely.
Next time you get a juicy tidbit about someone or something, and you are compelled to pass it along, ask yourself: 1. Is it true?
2. Is it decent? 3. Is it constructive? 4. If I am confronted about spreading this rumor what will be my answer?
Having passed those questions to your satisfaction, do what you must, and be ready to face the consequences.