Do you take part in office gossip? I don't like to think of myself as a gossip, but I have to admit I often do it. In my turbulent industry, I justify my behavior--perhaps wrongly--by reasoning that gossip helps me get information and figure out what is going on。
辦公室裡的八卦你會參加嗎？我不想讓人覺得我八卦，但我也承認我常會參與其中。在我這個千變萬化的行業中，我認為我的行為是合理的，理由是八卦可以幫我獲得資訊，弄清形勢──也許這樣想是錯誤的。
Amid a rise inoffice gossip, researchers are disagreeing over whether it isfundamentally good or bad. Some defend it as a way of buildingbonds among people and sharing essential information。
隨著辦公室八卦的興起，研究人員對它到底是好是壞也存在不同看法。一些人為它辯解說，這是同事間建立關係和分享必要資訊的一種途徑。
But othershold that office gossip can be savage and destructive, as the NewYork Times reports. At one company, , which hasa strict no-gossip policy, gossiping about colleagues can become afiring offense。
但根據《紐約時報》的報導，也有人認為，辦公室八卦可能十分低階，具有破壞性。一家名為的公司制定了嚴格限制八卦的政策，談論同事的閒話可能面臨被解僱。
In one caseanalyzed in a scholarly journal, middle school teachers' gossipabout their principal became so poisonous that the principalretaliated, many teachers fled the school and students' test scoresdeclined. In this case, gossip amounted to "a form of warfare thatbrought everyone down."
在某學術期刊分析的一個案例中，中學教師對他們校長的八卦影響很壞，以至於校長進行了報復，很多教師逃離了學校，學生的考試成績一落千丈。在這個案例中，八卦成為了一種損人不利己的'戰爭。
On the otherhand, less malignant gossip that stops short of repeating lies orbreaching confidences can serve as a source ofunderstanding。
另一方面，沒有重複謊言或洩漏機密的不存惡意的八卦可能帶來互相理解。
Gossiphelps us analyze the motivations of other people, and enables thoselow on the food chain, in particular, to understand how power isused in their organizations, says this New York Times article. Itis relaxing, it brings people together, and as a pastime it beatsgambling, drinking or doing drugs, this reasoning holds。
《紐約時報》的文章說，閒談可以幫助我們分析其他人的動機，尤其是那些處於食物鏈低端的人可以瞭解所處組織中的權力是如何使用的。它是一種放鬆，可以讓人們融洽，作為一種消遣它比賭博、飲酒或吸毒要好，這種判斷也不無道理。
Whatever sideyou take, gossip is here to stay. It is a universal human practiceand it is too complex to say it is either good or bad, a Universityof Colorado researcher says。
無論你站在哪一面，八卦都不會改變。美國科羅拉多大學的研究人員說，這是人類普遍存在的，很難說清到底是好是壞。
Whenresearchers at Case Western University asked students to citelessons they had learned from gossip, the students gave theseexamples: "Infidelity will eventually catch up with you" and"Cheerful people are not necessarilyhappy. "
當凱斯西大學的研究人員要求學生列出從八卦中得到的教訓時，學生舉出的例子有：“最終將眾叛親離”和“快樂的人不一定幸福”。
I have seen gossip help co-workers in some places where I have worked,giving rise to compassion or offers of support when someone isgoing through hard times. On the other hand, I have also seengossip--over an office romance, for example--distract people fromtheir work and even force unwanted transfers。
我看到八卦在我曾工作過的一些地方給同事帶來了好處，增進了感情或給遇到困難的人提供了支援。另一方面，我也看到八卦──比如針對辦公室戀情──分散了人們的工作精力，甚至帶來了意想之外的變動。