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Article: Putting a stop to office gossip:.(Features)(Work & Money)
- Article from:
- The Christian Science Monitor
- Article date:
- August 26, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Christian Science Publishing Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Amy Joyce
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- About a year ago, the human resources department at the Brand Consultancy Inc. in Washington came up with a rule: no more office gossip.
Er, um, make that no more "anaconda."
The company likens gossip to an anaconda, because, well, "what it does is wraps itself around people and literally sucks the wind out of them," says Vickie Hann, director of human resources.
Soon after she came up with the gossip-as-anaconda simile, the office was bedecked with Beanie Baby snakes, posters saying "No Anacondas!" and even a skit put on by Ms. Hann and several colleagues for new recruits and training sessions, ...