If you're wondering what your colleague at the next desk is writing so deeply, it might be something related to your personality. According to an American study, 15 percent of all emails exchanged on the service are gossipy.
Sociologists came to this conclusion after analyzing hundreds of thousands of emails exchanged between employees of the former energy giant Enron, which went bankrupt in 2001. But according to the team, the situation is the same in every major corporate office, reports Dnes.bg.
15 percent of the messages were classified as gossip because they concerned third parties who were not among the recipients. There was gossip at all levels of the office, but the lower staff excelled in this endeavour.
According to one of the study's authors, Eric Gilbert of the Georgia Institute of Technology, the average corporate employee sends an average of 112 emails per day.
One in seven emails contains gossipy content, but that's not always a bad thing. Speaking at a foreign address plays a very important role in mutual communication because important social information is exchanged through it.
The profanity in the 600,000 Enron emails examined was three times more common in the company's gossip e-mail.
The departmental gossip performed four important functions - it provided information and publicity, created intimacy and influence in both the official and personal relationships of the staff.
