64 IT Pro March ❘ April 2002

I am always amazed whencertain otherwise modelemployees, from time totime, feel the need either

to create or to propagate falserumors that spread throughoutour company. These rumorsvary widely, from social gossipabout who saw whom with

whom, to more pesky rumorssuch as imminent corporatebankruptcy.

My favorite rumor, however,is that our company’s founders(of which I am one) are finan-cially making out like banditswhile inadequately compensat-ing everyone else.That rumor isa conspiracy theory and oncestarted, can run rampant.And itis cyclical, sometimes fadingaway completely but alwaysrecurring.

Although some of theserumors are humorous, the factremains that none are worth thetime resources that they drainfrom upper management tosquelch them. The companypays a lot by taking as little astwo hours per week out of a

CEO’s schedule, not just interms of time, but also in termsof the emotional drain.

These problems are also notlimited to the IT world; theyoccur in companies large orsmall, whether public, private,not for profit, or governmental.So every manager and companymust learn to deal with theserumors as constructively as pos-sible.As the adage goes,“If youhave a lemon,make lemonade.”And so, I’ll provide a fewinsights that I’ve learned fordoing so.

ORIGINATION OF FALSE RUMORS

False rumors are typically theconsequence of two unrelatedproblems:

• poor communication be-tween upper managementand employees (regardless ofwhether they are technical oradministrative staff, or lower-level management), and

• an inherent desire in someindividuals to be thought ofas having access to insideinformation.

The latter is a form of one-ups-manship, and to play the game,you simply spin even the tiniestpiece of newly acquired infor-mation into something unveri-fiable. But not all false rumorsresult from these two problems;some people simply want todamage a fellow employee’s or

Jeffrey M. Voas

the company’s reputation.Andnot all rumors are false, as the“What If the Rumor is True?”sidebar (p. 62) discusses.

False rumors can originatefrom any source, however mostrumors that I’ve heard of camefrom nonmanagement employ-ees. And more specifically, theyoriginate from junior-level em-ployees (such as those fresh outof college). The reasons arenumerous, but the key onesinclude that these people possessthe least access to senior staffmeetings and the corporatebooks. And that, unfortunately,leaves them with too little infor-mation about discussions behindclosed doors. In fact, I’m willingto speculate that closed-doormeetings spawn more incorrectassumptions than any other rea-son for rumors. Employees aresuspicious of senior managersand assume they are only out forthemselves.In reality, these man-agers can be making significantsacrifices to lead the companyand its employees through hardtimes.

Junior employees also don’trealize that they can loose theirjobs by creating false rumors.However, junior employees arenot the only ones with fancifulimaginations. Colleagues atother companies tell stories ofvery mean-spirited rumors orig-inating from, and propagatingthrough, upper-managementcircles.

Managing officerumors takes finesse,but heading them off

at the pass can eliminate problems

down the road.

Corporate Rumorsand ConspiracyTheories

Continued on page 62

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62 IT Pro March ❘ April 2002

C A R E E R M A N A G E M E N T

tion, rumors will abound. If you doreveal it, the ensuing rumors could befar more believable, and you will findthose rumors harder to overcome.

Third, we’ve moved to a model inwhich we secure printers, fax machines,and other electronic sources of printedmedia. Paper that sits around printersand faxes has an unlimited potentialfor generating false rumors.

And fourth, to squelch rumorsrelated to the corporate books orfinances, we hold a monthly all-handsmeeting where our CFO goes throughthe books and answers questions.Although we scrub the informationsomewhat—we don’t disclose salaries,for example—employees know themonthly costs to run the company,andevery dollar generated from everycontract. In fact, this proactive policyhas almost killed all rumors of corpo-rate bankruptcy. Employees who areoff-site during the announcement cancall into the meeting, listen, and askquestions.

So avoidance is our preferredmethod for limiting the cost ofrumors; rumor destruction is simply asecond line of defense.

DestructionDestruction takes the bull by the

horns and publicly restates the rumorand communicates why it is false.Naturally, the earlier false-rumordestruction occurs, the better.Management really pays a high tax inlost efficiency with this process.

Don’t confuse destruction with anattempt to silence a rumor. Silencingwould be disastrous as it makes therumor appear true.

One of the nastiest rumors we werehit with in our company’s early yearsconcerned the company’s supposedimminent collapse. The rumor’sleader, as it turned out, was a senior-management member. Under himwere 10 terrific, young, bright, andenergetic developers and softwarearchitects.All verbal efforts to destroythis rumor failed, and in the end, weterminated his employment. Butunfortunately, we had let the rumor

partner and I employ several tech-niques. First, we make it plain to allincoming employees that we don’tappreciate corporate rumors. Second,we limit information such as who officevisitors are,where they come from,andwhy they are here.We do this until theproper time arrives for us to broadcastit. But limiting information presents acatch-22:If you do not reveal informa-

DEALING WITH RUMORSTo begin with, no matter what man-

agement does to thwart the start ofrumors, they will occur.You have basi-cally two approaches: avoidance anddestruction.

AvoidanceAvoidance ensures your staff

doesn’t generate false rumors. My

One issue that I have not delved into is when a rumor is true, such aswhen someone discovers legitimate information and starts disseminatingit. Such a case raises additional issues: How was the information discov-ered, and how far has it propagated? The first issue could be extremelyserious, such as if an employee hacked into a payroll system and revealedsalaries. This happened to us once, and the group that did it was almostfired. In this situation, we neither admitted nor denied whether the filesthey had hacked were real.And we made it clear that such repeated behav-ior would result in termination.

If a true rumor has propagated sufficiently, then once again, it calls formanagement to address the issue by either admitting the truth or refusingto substantiate it. Bottom line: Never claim a true rumor is false.The dam-age to trust between management and employees could be irreparable.

What If the Rumor is True?

Continued from page 64

March ❘ April 2002 IT Pro 63

persist for too long; the seed wasalready in the employees’ minds.Further, it did not help that after therumor instigator found other employ-ment, he continued his propagandacampaign to our employees via e-mail. In the end, all 10 employees left;of those, about eight joined the insti-gator’s new employer.

So, what did we learn? For one, weshould have nipped the rumor in thebud a lot sooner. We also should nothave blindly trusted senior-manage-ment employees and should have bet-ter communicated with the employeesbombarded by e-mail full of misinfor-mation.

Another episode occurred when anemployee opted, for whatever reason,to spend his eight hours per day cre-ating not just one rumor, but a familyof similar rumors, all to support hiscomplete dislike of the company.These rumors ranged from our poortechnology to our poor management,ridiculous policies, and so forth. Thisperson did no operate alone; twoother employees colluded with him.As you can imagine, this misinforma-

tion caused panic within the organi-zation. Finally, we had but one option:We fired them all.

One last point concerns how uppermanagement can stifle a rumor beforeit turns into a full-blown blaze.It is eas-iest to stifle rumors when they are kin-dling in the company’s lower levels andare not yet visible at the top. We’vebeen lucky to always have a fewemployees who are loyal enough toinform management of rumor propa-gation. My advice is to find suchemployees and reward them.Althoughthis can sound like management usingemployees to spy on their coworkers, itis not. Spying would be, for example,checking to see whether employees arediligently working or surfing the Weball day. That would be paranoia, andmanagement can’t devote all of itstime to this endeavor because, in real-ity, there is a business to run.Instead, itis about keeping a pulse on whatemployees are saying and thinking toensure management understands themorale,underlying fears,and concernsof the organization’s people. Satisfiedemployees create far fewer rumors.

R umors are analogous to wildfire.The longer they burn, the morethey burn. If you are a manager,

understand that the sooner you pourwater onto a fire, the sooner it willextinguish.Companies are like foreststhat have not had rain for years: Fireswill ignite no matter what. Createopen communication channels viawhich subordinates can bring theirconcerns to you first without broad-casting them on the corporate air-waves.

And what if you’re an employeestuck in the quagmire of rumors?Understand that your career will notbenefit from wasting corporateresources to kill the rumor. Reportthe matter to managers and let themdeal with it. If you attempt to inter-fere in the process, the company couldfire you. �

Jeffrey M.Voas is a cofounder and chiefscientist at Cigital in Dulles, Virginia.Contact him at jvoas@cigital.com.

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