We all know that gossiping in the office is an activity that is usually frowned upon, but did you know that it could actually make your work place more efficient? (We’ll admit we raised a collective eyebrow at that one too…)

Apparently having a gossip with the girls over the top of your cubical is a good thing because, according to research, gossip helps to isolate lazy workers and up the efficiency of the office.

Up to nine in every 10 conversations that take place within the office are based around gossiping, but according to a team of Dutch psychologists, this gossip isn’t necessarily malicious.

Are you guilty of having a gossip every now and then at work?

Researchers from Amsterdam University discovered that gossip is usually used to warn co-workers about colleagues that are not pulling their weight - and the risk of being gossiped about can be enough to pressure lazy workers to up their game.

“Gossip is often seen as exclusively self-serving behaviour aimed at manipulating others and influencing them in some malicious way,” said Dr Bianca Beersma, the lead author of the study.

“The results of our studies show that gossip may not always be as negative as one might believe at first. Gossip allows people to gather and validate information, to enjoy themselves with others, and to protect their group,” Dr Beersma added.

The research, which is published in the noted Journal of Applied Social Psychology, revealed that evolutionary forces actually caused gossip to develop an important social role over the past few centuries.

Okay so it may be an important social tool, but we all know that it’s never fun being the object of gossip. What do you think?