The Gossip Trap

Imagine the following:

Grace walked into the building for her first day of work at a new job. She paused at the coffee area and asked for directions to get to her office. The young lady with laughing green eyes and short brown hair said, good morning, are you new, pleased to meet you, I'm Jessie, and they had a brief but pleasant chat, before Grace went on through to her office. Later in the morning, Grace's manager, Susan, came past and told Grace she'd take her around to meet her fellow colleagues. Everyone was very friendly and Grace felt quite happy to be working for this company. On their rounds, she spied Jessie, the young lady she had chatted to when she first arrived this morning, and said to Susan, oh, I met her this morning. You don't want to mix with her, Susan frowned, she is trouble and I hear rumours all the time from that office about what a bully she is. Grace paused and glanced quickly in Jessie's direction in surprise. She seemed pleasant enough this morning, she said nervously. Grace avoided Jessie's goodbye on the way out to her car that afternoon, though she saw the hurt expression in Jessie's eyes before she turned away.

A few months later, Grace is in a meeting with Susan discussing workplace bullying and counter measures that can be implemented to eliminate this devastating practice. In the office next door, two people have recently been suspended for spreading unfounded, malicious gossip about a few people, including Jessie who resigned the week before. Grace crumbles internally, thinking if only she had followed her heart and gut instinct and had given Jessie a chance. She has always told herself not to allow gossip to cloud her judgement of someone, yet, due to a vague statement from someone who heard something from someone else, she fell into the bullies' trap.