Backbiting

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

I worked in an office where backbiting was the norm. It was a cancer, a version of bullying between the adults in the room.

Young salespeople mocking older ones. The people with the firm longer ridiculing the new employees for one thing or another.

Nothing good came from it.

“It toughens them up,” some might say. So does a punch in the mouth or the stomach but you don’t want one of those either, do you?

There’s a story about Socrates who was visited by someone who wanted to share gossip with him.

“Do you know if it is true?”

“Is it anything good you’re going to tell me?”

“Is what you’re going to tell me useful?”

“So you don’t know if it’s true, don’t know if anything good will come from this and it isn’t useful to me.”

With that Socrates excused himself.

Ⓒ The Big Game Hunter, Inc., Asheville, NC 2019, 2024

ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER

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