‘Marites’ in the workplace
I recently had coffee with a friend who heads a business news outlet. He shared how his website crashed after publishing a story about how a famous local celebrity is rumored to be dating the son of a prominent businessman. While he saw the incident as a “good problem” to have, it also felt like a sobering reminder of the power of gossip to draw and hold people’s attention more than any other type of content.
The act of gossiping has existed for centuries as a way for people to build social bonds while exchanging information. In the Philippines, our brand of gossiping culture is best embodied by how the term “Marites” has become a part of the Philippine lexicon. Popularized around 2020, it began as a lighthearted label for someone always “in the know.” It is interesting to note that the term is not necessarily derogatory, but is even seen as a badge of honor that can signal access to social capital or information.
While it often frames gossiping as a form of storytelling and amusement, the normalization of Marites culture carries more serious implications, especially when it spills over into institutional settings like the workplace. For instance, when left unchecked, having a Marites culture in the workplace can significantly affect an employee’s morale and professional growth. When coaching public school teachers, one of the common frustrations I receive from younger employees is that they are afraid to assert themselves and voice out new ideas because they do not want to be the subject of informal scrutiny. It leads to a form of intellectual shaming, wherein people who are perceived to be too ambitious, too eager, or too close to the principal are criticized and talked about. As a result, many teachers said that they just choose to conform rather than deal with all the intrigue and negativity.
From a psychological standpoint, gossip could be seen as a way to satisfy one’s need for social bonding and cohesion. However, as we see in the case above, gossip can also be used as a tool for social control. It becomes a mechanism for reinforcing a group’s dominant norms and, in some contexts, a form of subtle punishment for those who dare to deviate from social expectations.
This is especially challenging in Filipino culture, where we prize pakikisama, or the value of getting along with others. Gossip can easily exploit that by operating as a kind of social surveillance, with employees monitoring one another’s behavior in ways that subtly enforce conformity. And when gossip centers around topics like promotions and performance, it can eventually discourage employees from maximizing opportunities for growth and professional development.
Last month, Forbes published a study by LiveCareer, a US-based employment platform, which found that 58 percent of employees witness workplace gossip weekly, with 47 percent believing it lowers morale and fosters distrust, and 48 percent feeling unsafe sharing confidential information. This highlights how frequent gossiping compromises psychological safety at work, hindering people from collaborating openly and effectively.
From a leadership perspective, it is not enough to post guidelines against gossip or talk about “core values” during quarterly retreats. One of the best pieces of leadership advice I have ever received is that the culture of an organization cannot be found in the core values posted in the lobby. Rather, culture lives in unguarded conversations that take place at lunch in the cafeteria, during short breaks in the pantry, and in the small talk before meetings. Leaders have the responsibility to design workplace cultures that create psychological safety not just in formal interactions but in informal spaces as well.
It starts by recognizing that gossip often thrives in an environment where transparency, feedback mechanisms, and trust are weak. In organizations where employees feel they don’t have a voice to articulate their concerns and ideas, they will most likely turn to each other to process their frustrations and speculate about unclear decisions. More importantly, this kind of culture starts from the top. If team members see their supervisors engaging in and tolerating gossip or backbiting, no amount of policy will address the damage.
To address toxic Marites culture, companies should implement company policies that explicitly address gossiping, including consequences for violations. They can provide empathy-based training on the negative impacts of gossip and proactively guide employees on how to respond constructively. Equally important is that there must be safe avenues for expressing challenges and concerns.
Gossip may seem like a trivial matter, but it is in many ways a symptom of a larger problem that if left unaddressed, can sabotage the sense of community and safety in an organization. For employees, resisting the tendency to gossip means practicing discernment and choosing to protect a positive work culture over short-term entertainment. For leaders, it means building systems that foster transparency and hold everyone accountable to a shared ethic of respect.
