Saints Helping Us at Work: Dealing with Office Gossip and the Sin of Detraction

Continuing with last week's theme of "Saints Helping Us at Work," as we work our way to All Saints Day this coming Saturday, let's call on one of our great saints to help us Catholics at work with the problem of gossip, a common phenomenon in the workplace that, unfortunately, easily devolves into the sin of detraction. Gossip has probably been around as long as mankind. Office gossip can sound innocent enough, but my experience has been that the lack of charity that frequently accompanies it easily slips into full-blown detraction. We comment to others about something someone said or did. Frequently we judge their words and actions. Once we start down that road, we're one small step from detraction. So with gossip as ubiquitous as it is, we call on St Francis de Sales to help us understand the seriousness of the situation:

Rash judgment produces anxiety, contempt of our neighbor, pride, self-complacency, and many other most pernicious effects. Among these, detraction, the plague of our society, holds the first place. He who would deliver the world from detraction would free it from a great number of sins. Whoever robs his neighbor of his good name is not only guilty of sin but is also obliged to make reparation; for no man can enter into heaven with the goods of another; and, among all exterior goods, a good name is the best.

A lot of the chatter we hear today about us not being "judgmental" is really designed to geld our religious beliefs of any meaning or substance. But here St Francis isn't telling us not to be judgmental; rather he refers specifically to "rash judgment" which can lead us directly to sin - the sin of detraction. Notice that he calls detraction "the plague of our society." While he lived in the late 16th/early 17th century, I suspect the same might be said today. And my experience has been that the workplace sometimes proves a virulent breeding ground for gossip, especially when people, rather than attending diligently to their work by minding their own business, turn their attention to their colleagues' business. Let's follow St Francis de Sales step by step as carefully reveals not only the nature, but also the serious consequences of the sin of detraction:

All slander is a kind of murder; for we have three lives – the spiritual, which consists in the grace of God; the bodily, which depends on the soul; and the civil, which consists in our good name. Sin takes away the first, death takes away the second, and detraction robs us of the third.

Got that? Murder. He's not mincing words here, and there's a good reason he's not.

If you've ever been the object of detraction on the part of another person or persons, you'll readily understand the seriousness of the situation. Having been on the receiving end myself, I've experienced the consequences. And while my experience wasn't so bad that my reputation was ruined, on at least one occasion the consequences were palpable and lasted quite a while. By the grace of God, I dealt with it without too much anger or any desire for revenge. And in praying for God's help, I realized that I've been too loose with my tongue at times, a realization that tempered and eventually eliminated my resentment at being treated this way. However, I also realized that some people don't just have loose tongues; rather they really do consider it their place to pass judgement on the words and actions of others, and seem oblivious to any understanding of the concept of "rash" judgment. If you've got a tendency to think this way, St Francis advises:

...beware of falsely imputing crimes and sins to your neighbor, of discovering his secret sins or of magnifying those that are manifest, of making an evil interpretation of his good works or of denying the good which you know that he possesses, or dissembling it maliciously, or diminishing it by your words.

Our saint demonstrates remarkable knowledge and understanding of human nature here, doesn't he? False accusations against another are bad enough. They directly contradict the 8th Commandment: "Thou shalt not bear false witness against they neighbor." But the commandment also encompasses those whom St Francis additionally admonishes here, those who go about discovering their neighbor's "secret sins" or those "magnifying those that are manifest." He even points out those individuals who would turn the "good works" of another into something bad through "evil interpretation," or an outright denial of "the good which you know that he possesses," by "dissembling" it (which means hiding or concealing), or "diminishing" it by purposeful use of deceptive words.

This simple but rich paragraph identifies the varied ways that those with evil intentions not only lie about others, causing them sometimes irreparable harm, but even take that which is good in others and twist that good into something bad, or at the very least diminish the good in others for their own perverse reasons. That such people exist, and that their poison can be lethal to others should come as no surprise. But perhaps we all need to look at ourselves and take stock of those times we may have - even if inadvertently - spoken of others in ways that, while they may not directly slander others, provide fodder for those who would use our comments against others.

(We might remind ourselves to always exercise "carefulness in conversation," one of the things we pray for in the "Morning Resolve" - a great prayer to start the day off right which we posted a while back.)

Well, this post is getting a bit long, but St Francis de Sales has more to say about this critically important subject. So we'll sign off for now and continue next time...