Manager walks in on direct reports whispering and gossiping about her: 'They tensed up, looked guilty, and immediately changed the subject.'

• A manager recently took to a forum of fellow managers to share her experience with walking in on her direct reports talking about her behind her back. 

  "I accidentally walked in on a few of my reports talking behind my back. I didn’t actually hear what they were saying, but I could tell from their body language—the way they tensed up, looked guilty, and immediately changed the subject—that they were complaining about me. I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong.

  They’ve been with the team for years, while I joined about a year ago. Since then, I’ve been trying to make a few changes, especially around productivity. Logically, I know I shouldn’t let it get to me, but for some reason, it’s really bothering me.

  So my question is: how would you react if this happened to you?"

• 
  via Vitaly Gariev

  _{Coworkers secretly gossip about their boss while their boss is out of the room.}

  _{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}

• Another manager told her how they would handle this incredibly awkward situation. 

  “I’m a different kind of personality so I’d probably say something like “if you’re bonding over your dislike of me, as long as you’re bonding and becoming a stronger team I’m ok with it” and then walk into my office .”

• 
  via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

  _{Employee vents about her boss, which is perfectly natural.}

  _{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}

• One manager assured her that this is very common, with a hilarious anecdote about it happening to her. 

  "I think we all complain about our boss sometime. So it’s kind of normal that our team complain about us. It’s part of the job. A few months ago, someone in my team send a group text message at night to several member of the team including me, first work related then they were just chatting about random stuff, One other member clearly did not see I was in the group and made a nasty comment about me. Everybody else stopped answering… The day after, I totally ignored the situation, her direct boss mentioned the incident to me and I just told him I did not really care about that person opinion. Why would I ? She took a sick day btw. Was too embarrassed to come to work."

• 
  via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

  _{Employee takes a sick day after accidentally criticizing her boss in a group chat he is in.} 

  _{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}

• How would you handle overhearing your coworkers talking about you behind your back?

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