British workers told to keep chatting: study

London - British workers have been encouraged to keep up the chatter after a study conducted on nurses by occupational psychologists revealed that gossip was good for business.

"Gossiping can be seen as trivial but it is very therapeutic and makes people feel better," said Kathryn Waddington, of the School of Nursing at London's City University, a co-author of the study.

Waddington told employers at Britain's annual conference of occupational psychologists which came to an end Friday that tittle-tattle could help them to become more creative.

"Gossip is often viewed with suspicion by employers, but it could potentially have positive benefits for them and their staff in stressful professions such as nursing," Waddington said.

"We have found gossip to be frequently used by nurses as an immediate means of expressing emotions and opinions and as such employers in the health sector might wish to view gossip in a different way," she said.

Interviews by an occupational psychologist among 100 nurses found that some spent up to four hours a day gossiping.

Not all gossip is good though, the study said, warning that so-called negative gossiping could be bad for morale if it involved spreading malicious or false rumours.

Women were more honest about their gossiping, while men often described it as de-briefing or networking. -- AFP News

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