Teachers are the biggest gossips, says survey

If you are a teacher, banker or a stockbroker, watch your back because a new report has found your colleagues are the biggest gossips.

The favourite topics to tattle over at the water cooler include the boss, other people's personal life and the work performance of associates.

It seems office politics is alive and kicking across the UK. According to the survey of 2,000 employees, one in three of those polled preferred to talk about someone behind their back.

Ros Oxley of Leaders in London, whose firm conducted the poll, said: "People tend to pull together, watch each other's backs and operate less fractiously in occupations where there is a common goal and where teamwork is important - for example, the emergency services.

"In other arenas, where individual achievement is key and opportunities for promotion are heavily competed for, people are more inclined to use each other to lever themselves towards the top."

The top ten professions for office bitching are said to be teaching, financial services, catering, medicine, travel, police, media, telecoms, pharmaceuticals and emergency services.

© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

Post to Fark Post to del.icio.us Digg this story Post to reddit Post to Facebook Post to StumbleUpon Seed Newsvine Post to GNN Post to MySpace