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.

Amid a rise in office gossip, researchers are disagreeing over whether it is fundamentally good or bad. Some defend it as a way of building bonds among people and sharing essential information. But others hold that office gossip can be savage and destructive, as the New York Times reports. （At one company, PrintingForLess.com, which has a strict no-gossip policy, gossiping about colleagues can become a firing offense.）

In one case analyzed in a scholarly journal, middle school teachers' gossip about their principal became so poisonous that the principal retaliated, many teachers fled the school and students' test scores declined. In this case, gossip amounted to 'a form of warfare that brought everyone down.'

On the other hand, less malignant gossip that stops short of repeating lies or breaching confidences can serve as a source of understanding. Gossip helps us analyze the motivations of other people, and enables those low on the food chain, in particular, to understand how power is used in their organizations, says this New York Times article. It is relaxing, it brings people together, and as a pastime it beats gambling, drinking or doing drugs, this reasoning holds.

Whatever side you take, gossip is here to stay. It is a universal human practice and it is too complex to say it is either good or bad, a University of Colorado researcher says. When researchers at Case Western University asked students to cite lessons they had learned from gossip, the students gave these examples: 'Infidelity will eventually catch up with you' and 'Cheerful people are not necessarily happy. ' This positive dimension of gossip was featured recently in the newsletter Work & Family Life.

I have seen gossip help co-workers in some places where I have worked, giving rise to compassion or offers of support when someone is going through hard times. On the other hand, I have also seen gossip - over an office romance, for example - distract people from their work and even force unwanted transfers.

办公室里的八卦你会参加吗？我不想让人觉得我八卦，但我也承认我常会参与其中。在我这个千变万化的行业中，我认为我的行为是合理的，理由是八卦可以帮我获得信息，弄清形势──这样想也许是错误的。

随着办公室八卦的兴起，研究人员对它到底是好是坏也存在不同看法。一些人为它辩解说，这是同事间建立关系和分享必要信息的一种途径。但根据《纽约时报》（New York Times）的报导，也有人认为，办公室八卦可能十分低级，具有破坏性。（一家名为PrintingForLess.com的公司制定了严格限制八卦的政策，谈论同事的闲话可能面临解雇。）

在某学术期刊分析的一个案例中，中学教师对他们校长的八卦影响很坏，以至于校长进行了报复，很多教师逃离了学校，学生的考试成绩一落千丈。在这个案例中，八卦成为了一种损人不利己的战争。

另一方面，没有重复谎言或泄漏机密的不存恶意的八卦可能带来互相理解。《纽约时报》的文章说，闲谈可以帮助我们分析其他人的动机，尤其是那些处于食物链低端的人可以了解所处组织中的权力是如何使用的。它是一种放松，可以让人们融洽，作为一种消遣它比赌博、饮酒或吸毒要好，这种判断也不无道理。

无论你站在哪一面，八卦都不会改变。美国科罗拉多大学的研究人员说，这是人类普遍存在的，很难说清到底是好是坏。当凯斯西x大学的研究人员要求学生列出从八卦中得到的教训时，学生举出的例子有："最终将众叛亲离"和"快乐的人不一定幸福".最近的工作？家通讯提到了八卦的积极一面。

我看到八卦在我曾工作过的一些地方给同事带来了好处，增进了感情或给遇到困难的人提供了支持。另一方面，我也看到八卦──比如针对办公室恋情──分散了人们的工作精力，甚至带来了意想之外的变动。