Emails 'serving as new forum for office gossip

A study of 600,000 emails by the Georgia Institute of Technology has found one out of every seven emails is office gossip and that those emails are 2.7 times more likely to be negative rather than positive, News.com.au reported

Workers at the lowest rung of the company hierarchy are the biggest gossipers, while employees of all levels are also more likely to gossip to their superiors

Georgia Tech Assistant Professor Eric Gilbert, the author of the study, said he was surprised that almost 15 per cent of emails are gossip

"But then again, gossip is something we all do in every aspect of our lives,'' he said.