Dianne,

Actually, corporate gossip can sometimes be useful. One time I heard from several people that my boss was going to be fired. He and I got along fairly well even though I didn’t always agree with what he did. I told him about the gossip I’d heard. “That’s possible, Judy,” he said. “But no one has told me about it.” At Christmastime parties that year I heard the gossip again. But at our last meeting for the year as we summed up what we’d done, my boss turned and whispered to me, “See Judy, I didn’t get fired after all.” It was a month later when I went out to my car, got in, turned the motor on, and heard my cell phone ring. It was my boss calling me to say to not bother coming to the meeting that morning. I’d been right. He’d been fired. For me, it turned out to be good I’d been prepared for that event. I hadn’t assumed it would happen, but I made sure I was OK if it did. And I also prepared my boss.

Judy