Stop Workplace Gossip and Bullying

Watching the Lord do his tricks was really entertaining, but also an impactful message. I couldn’t wait to talk about what happened when I got home.

“Sam, yes tell your wife and kid, tell everyone. The best way to share my message is to talk. The right words can make all the difference from the right messenger. But that also raises one of my big concerns as well. One of my biggest workplace concerns is an issue I have had for years, actually since the dawn of mankind. Do you know what that issue is Sam?”

I looked around for help, but there was no one there to help me answer the Lord’s question.

“It is people talking smack. In one study several years ago, gossiping and office politics were the second most annoying behavior mentioned by workers. The first was sloppy work.”

The Lord looked me deep in my eyes. It was like he was piercing my soul…. once again. He was good at that. He had millions or billions of years to hone that skill. I was thinking about how old he might be, but I didn’t want to interrupt the flow.

“Sam, I am very old, and let’s leave it at that. But getting back to my point, I really hate it when people talk bad about others. I refer to it as the evil tongue. Whenever anyone tells a lie to hurt someone, or slander someone, or tries to drive a wedge between people through false speech that is an evil tongue.”

The Lord leaned in and opened his mouth. Out came his tongue. It kept growing and was the shape of a snake. It started wrapping itself around my hand. The Lord had a very strong tongue and it started constricting my hand. Then when I looked at my hand, the miracle had vanished. This trick had three points. One it showed me how an evil tongue really looks. Second it reminded me about the snake and how the snake had lied to Eve. Third, the snake was constricting my ability to write. Evil tongue restricts one’s ability to get things done.

“That is a great analysis Sam, and so fast. You are starting to get the hang of this prophet related work, aren’t you?”

I even impressed myself with that analysis.

God continued, “The word Shema examines listening- not just listening but hearing- there is a difference between hearing something and internalizing things. I used the word ‘hear’ 92 time in Deuteronomy. It’s that important. It can be translated in so many ways such as to pay attention, to heed, to hear, to hearken, to understand, to respond, and to obey. It’s the Swiss Army Knife of words, such as Shalom and Aloha. The focus is on hearing and understanding. It’s similar to how the Bible does not focus on talking about me, but rather people talking to me…and me listening. When someone says something bad about another, there is the act of saying and the act of hearing, both parties are now impacted and guilty of a sin if it is evil talk. Listening to someone say something bad about another and not protesting is evil. Not as evil as the speaker, who was either intentional or reckless with the truth, but still a guilty party.”

A pair of big lips appeared on the screen. Out of the lips spewed all these “lies.”  There were hundreds of the word “lies” that were spilling out and landing on the floor.

“Sam, for me there are various levels of evil. I understand that there is and will always be power battles. When one controls another, by the very nature of the relationship one is controlling another and minimizing the other person’s ability to self-actualize. It is a part of control. That’s one reason why I allowed the Israelites to appoint a king if they wanted one. They did not have to, but they could. One element I included in that directive was that the people can also dethrone a king, which happened several times in the Bible. The power was with the people as much as with the kings. Thus, there was more of a balance rather than outright potential for abusing power. But when instances occurred of kings abusing their power I had built in a fail-safe. That fail-safe were the prophets who regularly confronted king, and the people, for their misdeeds. Thus, I tried to insert a possible solution to address the imbalance of power and the possible evil when some abuse their power.”

The Lord continued. “However, a more difficult evil is this evil tongue I just mentioned. Once a lie is made, it is almost impossible to collect that lie and undo the harm it had done. It is like plucking feathers from a chicken and having the wind blow those feathers all over. Then several days later a person decides they want to collect the feathers again. Good luck.”

Feathers started falling from the ceiling.

“Sam, the harm from evil speech is so much worse than trying to collect feathers. I feel that harming someone’s reputation and embarrassing someone in public, both possibly results of evil speech, are equivalent to murder. You have killed someone’s reputation. In the story of Tamar and Judah, Tamar could have embarrassed Judah. Judah visited her as a prostitute rather than seeing her as his former daughter-in-law. He gave her some items to hold as collateral until he could pay her. When she was nowhere to be found he went searching for her. By the time she was found she was visibly pregnant and because she was supposed to be betrothed to his last son he wanted to put her to death. However, she shared his collateral with him privately not to embarrass him in public. At that point he realized that she was correct, he was in the wrong, and she ended up giving birth to two sons. The story in Genesis 38 ends on a happy note as one son, Perez, ended up being the forefather of King David. Karma has a way of showering greatness on those who follow my laws. That is why it is so important to stop evil tongue in its tracks. It can cause embarrassment, loss of income, loss of reputation, loss of self-respect, and will eventually lead to the death of one’s soul.”

The Lord looked at me. He grabbed a handful of feathers from the floor and threw them into the air.

“Sam, those are all lies. Do you know how many I collect daily?  I should start a pillow company…I can call it Lie Pillow…. I like that. I wonder what the My Pillow guy would think about that. He might try to sue me.”

A big pillow replaced the lips on the screen.

“Sam, speech is the ultimate weapon. It can heal and it can scar. Likewise, not saying anything can also lead to conflict or can resolve a fight. So much power…yet it is so misused. I had the rabbis write close to 2,000 years ago in the Talmud- Teach your tongue to say, ‘I do not know,’ lest you be caught in a falsehood (Berachos 4a).”

I never thought how bad workplace speech could be and that it was actually evil. But it made so much sense. I had seen so much high school drama in the workplace, and it was primarily focused on gossip and backstabbing. So much wasted time.

“The answer is very simple, Sam. Managers and leaders have to set an example for proper speech and not tolerate any verbal or written jabs or attacks in the workplace. If it cannot be said in front of someone’s face, it cannot be said. As simple as that.”