Oh, I just thought everyone should know in case it impacts the team

You know, I have this one coworker who I’ve kind of nicknamed “The Rumor Mill.” It’s not that he’s a bad guy or anything, but he just can’t seem to keep a secret. Anytime something even remotely interesting happens around the office, he’s the first one to start spreading the word.

It’s honestly gotten to the point where I try to avoid telling him anything personal, because I know it’ll be all over the office before the end of the day. Like, there was this one time I mentioned to him that I was thinking about switching departments. Well, by lunchtime, the whole team knew about it, and people were coming up to me asking if it was true.

The worst part is, he always tries to play it off like he’s just sharing “helpful information.” He’ll be like, “Oh, I just thought everyone should know in case it impacts the team.” But I know the real reason is that he just loves being the first one to know the latest juicy gossip.

It’s especially frustrating when it involves stuff about other people. There was this one time when he overheard a private conversation between our boss and one of the interns. The next day, he was going around telling everyone that the intern was getting a big promotion. Turns out, that wasn’t even true – the intern was just getting a small raise. But the damage was already done, and it was awkward for everyone involved.

Honestly, I’ve gotten to the point where I just avoid talking to him altogether, unless it’s something super mundane and work-related. I figure the less information I give him, the less he’ll have to spread around. And I always make sure to couch anything sensitive in, “Please don’t tell anyone else about this,” just to try to put the brakes on the rumor train before it leaves the station.

It’s a shame, because otherwise, he’s a pretty nice guy. But I just can’t trust him with anything important. At this point, I’ve kind of accepted that he’s always going to be “The Rumor Mill” around the office. I just have to work around it as best I can.