Electronic walk about. No one should have to walk through life alone. We share the good times, the bad times and the best times. Everyone needs a little direction now and again. And TC and Maddog are here to show you the way. A podcast where we talk about the important things in life. Come journey with us. The Electronic Walkabout. Here we go again. Maddog. Good afternoon and good morning and good day to you.

Thank you. How are you, sir?

Not too bad at all. Again, you know with this episode, I'm not sure if I should be whispering when I set the listeners up for this, but let them know where our journey is going to take us. Today we're going to be talking about gossip. Oh, something that can cause a mountain of damage. But we're going to look at it from a different perspective. These perspectives focus on the positive aspect about gossip. Sounds kind of crazy, but not so much from a guy where the glass is always half full. Let's see how gossip can be used in a positive light. Let's see where this takes us today. But Maddog, when you hear the word gossip, what comes to mind? Like what kind of pictures come to mind too?

Oh, God. Like I’ll get into trouble for this later. But all the crap that my wife watches on tv, like the selling Sunset and all those TV shows and that's all it's based around is people gossiping about one another. I just, I tune out so quick with gossip. You know, if it's, if somebody's sharing a story, that's one. If it's just gossip, it's like I, I got no time for it.

Yeah, it's, it's, yeah. And I'm, I'm with you there. Like when I, when I hear the word gossip, the word malicious comes into my mind as well. Because usually when, when, when it's gossip, it's. This is like, hey, did you hear what happened to so and so? And it's something that probably isn't favorable. And it's like it's going around wherever, maybe the office, maybe around the playing field, wherever. And guess what? You know, people are talking.

Oh, absolutely. Now they've called it, "oh, I'm spilling the tea on this". Blah, blah, blah. But yeah, it's usually sharing information that most likely wouldn't be shared normally. But you can't stop yourself. You gotta tell them about something.

Well, you know, just add, just something that goes along with that. But I've had it happen to me a couple times where someone's confided in me and they said, and don't tell anyone. Okay. And I can, I can keep a secret. And it happened to me once where. So I just want to let you know that this, this is going on with me right now and, but, but don't tell anybody about it. So next thing you know, I'm in the boss's office and this is literally like two, two or three minutes before we had the conversation and the boss is telling me about this individual and I'm going, oh, yeah, it's funny.

Also do that. Right? It's, it's like, yeah, they're like, don't tell anybody, but they tell 300 people. And it's like it's going to get out and then, then it turns into gossip.

And so when we talk about that, do people truly understand what the negative results are of gossip, do you think?

I don't think so. I think it's just sometimes if you're being talked about, like, you know, sometimes it's. People just enjoy getting any type of press, be it good, bad or otherwise.

Oh, yeah, those people, they just, they, they, they would eat that up for.

Right.

So let's talk about gossip in a, in a positive way. Have you ever actually, first of all, consider gossip and.

No, no, that's. I'm very interested to hear what you have to say.

I got something in my back pocket I'm going to pull out. You're going, oh, that makes a perfect sense to me. But it's not like a cliffhanger or anything like that. No.

You don't usually consider gossip to be a.

No, but it's like when I, when I first played around with, let's say, hey, let's talk about gossip, I thought, but it can do so much damage. And then when I started kind of looking around because like I always say, we do a lot of research for these episodes and this one, one piece of information that I happened to come across talked about the positive aspects of gossip. I think, well, that's where we need to focus on that. But let's have some fun with the negative. Is there anybody that you want to talk about?

Oh, there was this one guy that's.

Keep in mind, gossip has actually been around as long as we could communicate with each other. It was a useful way to pass on information about people that you had a gauge on whether you could trust them or not. So think about this. This is one of the positive things we're going to talk about. So if you get a phone call, it's, it's almost like a reference. Hey, what do you think about so and so.

But is it an actual reference, like, or is it a question?

Yeah, they, like, if they're trying to do it, like, I'll say they're trying to figure out the. Whether this person's good to work with it. It could be anything. Right. Or even, even a friend, for that matter. What. What's this guy all about? What's.

That's. That. You know, I see that as a very loaded question. Right. And it's like, you don't know the relationship that a person has with that. And, you know, that's, I think, where potential negative gossip comes out. But I'm very interested in this positive. Yes.

So when we talk about. When. When you talk about your reputation as being gold, right. And you want people to talk about that positive gold reputation you have. And what better way for that to come to life in an arena of gossip? And that's. That's the key right there. I mean, you. It's that whole good press, bad press, but you're always hoping for the good press, especially when it comes to the gossip, because the story was. I was being transferred from, let's say, up country down to lower mainland to work with the team. Everybody wanted to know what this guy was all about and what he could do. And guess what? They were fishing. Everybody does that, right. So they wanted to hear the skinny, the gossip on me to figure out whether I would be the fit or not. Right.

So then your reputation is just that. So, hey, if you got a great reputation, have at it.

Yeah, but then there's that one time.

Oh, of course there's. But I think that's human nature, right? Not everybody wants to shine a positive light on things. Everyone's looking for the dirt or the juicy stuff that, you know, they know that other people don't.

Okay, so if. If you hear someone and they're gossiping and you know very well that. That the words they're sharing are not. Not favorable, what do you do with that? Do you just kind of sit back and listen or do you say, hey, wait a second. That's. That's a tough one too. Is it?

It is, yeah. It's.

Ooh.

I don't know if I should answer this. It's. I don't know if I would necessarily. I guess it all depends on the context of the conversation.

Okay, so context and who is the subject of the context?

I'll say. Exactly.

So if I care for that individual and I know them very well, and I hear people are like, say, casting the reputation in a. In a. Not so nice Light.

I would absolutely say something at that point.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

But I, I just don't make a, I don't get involved in other people's business when I don't have to. But if it's something like that where it's somebody that I know and I care about and somebody's saying something not nice and absolutely I'll say something and.

I, I think that's fair. But for the most part, like, would you even shut down,... Hey now, Look, let's, if you want to tell someone else about that, go ahead. I'm not really interested in hearing it because at the end of the day, like, it, it's, yeah, yeah, it's, I.

I, I don't know. I, I find this is me personally. I've, I've grown over probably the last decade with tolerances and, and whatnot. And, and a lot of the times I will not necessarily turn to a blind eye. But if it's not something that I need to be involved in, I, I don't get involved in it unless to your point, it's something that I care about or somebody that I care about, then I'm all in. But outside of that, I, I try not to stick my nose in other people's business.

Oh yeah, I, and I don't know how many times you, let's say you go on holidays for a week or two and you come back to the office and you want to know what's going on. And he said, hey, what's been going on since I've been on holidays? That's, that hits the gossip button, right? Sure.

And that one, that part like when it's office gossip that's juicy like that.

You got to get into that.

You're sure that one is fine? Because you know, there's a, yeah, it's, it was funny when I was working for Nestle back in the day, you know, you'd show up at work at 8, but everybody was around the coffee machine till 8:45, 9:00 and then everybody went to their desk. But you could find out a lot of really good things about people if you in that conversation.

And what would you do with that information?

Oh, store it for when it's needed.

Yeah. I don't know. It's, it's not something that's all that, all that positive. But I mean, even if we like dial it back a few centuries, that was the only way that people kept history alive.

Yeah, true.

Whether it be true or not. But I mean, and they'd be sitting around, let's say I'll say the campfire just for sake of discussion and just talking about different individuals and.

But with that, the story changes every time somebody hears it or passes it along. Rights.

Yes.

May start off as, oh, did you hear Frank? Yeah, he kicked that, that rock and he hurt his toe real bad. And by the 10th person we broke his neck when he did it.

Yes, yes. And I hate to say it like this, but it almost sounds like the ability to gossip is a skill. And I, and I say, I hate to say it like this just based on what we've been talking about as far as gossip. And I'm not saying gossip has a bad rap for being. Having a negative connotation, but I'm trying to be very open minded when I'm saying. Okay, there are some positive things about this too. Right.

So. And I think it's just, you know, I think human nature nowadays just to be inquisitive and everyone wants to know and I think that's part of the issue with the Internet is everybody has ass access to everything right away and it's, they can find out stuff and share stuff and it's just, it's a, turns into like a tornado of gossip at a certain point.

Well, what, what was it? I mean all. You could still do it today. You'd go into the supermarket and see the National Enquirer. If that wasn't a, a piece of literature. Literature.

You're, I use that word loosely, I think.

Thank you very much. But totally based on gossip. That, that I, I would suggest that the readership was, was quite high.

Yes. And they were just, I think, you know, loved seeing that type of stuff. But now, you know, you hear about all this UFO stuff and if I had a dollar for every time I saw that on the National Enquirer. But that's just gossip.

What was the latest UFO stuff? It was the underwater UFO stuff.

Near Guadalupe or Guadalupe Islands there's an underwater base O. It's just, it's, it's. Yeah. And you can't. And that's the problem with the Internet these days. Like you just don't know what's. Fact.

No.

Anymore gets lost.

Do you know anybody that's been abducted by aliens by any chance?

No.

Because if you did know, you would know it as a result of someone gossiping. Absolutely. Right.

Yeah. And I would contribute to it and tell everybody.

Little green man. I don't know. It's, it's crazy funny as everybody knows that Donald Trump got voted in as the President of the United States. And I'd say Crazy, crazy, crazy. Landslide victory across all houses. All houses. There was a comedian that was on television and, you know, and it's, it gets back to the gossip because people say, hey, did you hear what Donald Trump is going to do? We hear he's going to fill in the Grand Canyon. And he, and, and before, before, if someone said, well, I hear someone's going to fill in the Grand Canyon, yeah. They would say, oh, that's, that's just hogwash. Right. But, but then we got Donald Trump.

Well, yes, he's president, so, yes, anything can happen.

Anything can happen. So it's quite possible that Donald Trump might decide that might be a good idea to fill in the Grand Canyon, right?

It's entirely possible.

Yeah. But that's again, like, in a crazy kind of way that, that really brings gossip to light. And of course, comedians, I'm sure that they just tap into that gossip and that's just gold from them, I guess, when they are doing their routines, right. So, my God, gossip when you were. I'll just say, I'll put it in the high school setting. I think that's, that's where people learn to gossip or learn, I'll say, learn. The value or the devalue of the power, the policy. That's, that's even better. The, the power of gossip. Because if you have the information or the skinny on that person and, or.

If they liked somebody or, yeah, you know, oh, these guys are going to fight. And that word gets around.

Yeah, crazy. But then they would have the coffee clicks with moms that would, there would be gossip there. Right. Because that's the only way that they would get together. Right?

Absolutely. It happens. I saw it when the Starbucks was down the road and, you know, all the moms would drop off their kids and then they would all just swarm that place and it was like, you wouldn't want to get caught dead there because it was just insane. But they were all chatty, chatty, chatty, chatty, just talking about stuff and, you know, different teachers and I was like, oh, my goodness. Like, like, yeah, it's, it's. But you know what? I think people sometimes do that just as a way to contribute to a conversation if they don't necessarily have, you know, something better to say or educated on, something that might just slide in some gossip.

I don't think my grandfather would have been a gossiper. But I'll tell you what, he could spin people up with a little BS all the time and they would believe him. Whether that classifies as the catalyst of gossip, maybe he Used it to his advantage. Used it to his advantage. Right. But I mean, for people to believe him, that's, that's something in itself, right?

Yeah, well, there's, there's always one in a bunch that'll take your word, right. Whether it's real or not.

Well, you know what, A lot of times people, I'll say something that makes no sense, they'll look at me because they don't know whether I'm telling the truth or not, and they'll say, really? And let's say, no, not really.

But you got a good poker face.

So. Yeah, so it's.

Sometimes it's hard to reach.

Got a good poker face, but I've never won a pot.

Queen nine, Queen nine, one day.

Yeah, well, you know what, and we've talked about it, the positive thing with respect to gossip and reputation. Right. And I, I say positive because it can really do you good. Especially if, if people say, hey, there's a kind of guy or a kind of gal that I want to work with just based on what I'm hearing, I can't wait. Right.

So, yeah, and that happens, I think sometimes with, you know, your, your evaluations with work is that they'll, you know, they'll solicit, your co workers, say, you know, how does this person work? Work in your team or in the environment? That is an open door talk. Yeah, I think it's, it's kind of gossip might be disguised as other things, rather call it feedback or whatever, but as soon as you ask somebody's input on a scenario or something, you gotta take it for what it's worth, tell.

You how to look. I mean, the whole, the whole peer review thing, that's, that's a tough one. Right? Because you, let's say, for example, you do know the skinny about this person. You know that maybe they're not the best person. But you're not going to share that gossip when you get asked that question?

No, it'll come back.

It'll come back. So.

But I have, I remember one, I worked remotely and, and you know, I heard that. Oh yeah, well, you get along with all your colleagues. And I was like, I don't even work in the office. But you have a good reputation, everybody likes you. I was like, oh, okay. Did you ask people like that? I was, it took me aback a little bit. But you know, they, they do look at things like that for if, how you are a team player and whatnot. So they have to solicit a little.

Bit of that gossip and correct me If I'm wrong, I'm only going on information. But if like you're playing on a sports team, the coaches are going to ask, right? And I remember going through training, my, my troop mates were solicited on, hey, how is this guy in. In the troop? Is it. Does he contribute? Is he a good team player? That kind of stuff. So it's been around forever, but it's.

Just had different names.

Different names, I guess. But I'm only going to venture, I guess no one's going to say anything negative.

Yeah, there's always a few.

Yeah, I think we can always count on that.

But you know, if. If you do have that good reputation, I have to worry about the negatives coming too much.

Well, what did you hear?

Well, I can't tell you, but I heard it probably, you know.

Yes. Anyways, then there's that music playing again and it's telling us this episode's come to an end. Surprisingly, there are some benefits to gossip.

I mean, you put a good light on it.

Okay. I was wondering whether I did a good enough sales job there or not, actually. It serves to share important information in both personal and professional lives. It serves to develop our reputation, hopefully in a positive way. Using gossip in a positive manner will build positive relationships. We never did talk too, too much about that. You think about networking as goals when it comes to business relationships. Right. So, and that's basically a little bit of gossip fold around there too. Never take gossip at face value. Never, ever, ever drill down to learn its accuracy. Only then can it be considered to share with others.

Unless it's juicy.

Unless it's juicy. Passing on positive gossip will develop your skills as a listener and further develop good people skills. Thoughts on that?

This is a loaded one because I ain't gonna start talking like this to my wife and see how this works.

Oh my gosh.

Gossip in a positive manner. I'll let you know how it comes. If I walk in with the black guy, you know I failed.

Remember when we were never meant to walk alone? Take advantage of the moment before the moment takes advantage of you. To learn more about E-walkabout, please visit us at ewalkabout.ca.