Workplace gossip: Is it good or bad for your career?

A few weeks into her first month at a new job, Karen Wambui was seated at her desk, clicking away at her keyboard when the door to the office burst open, and a woman billowed in.

She scanned the office for a moment, her eyes eventually landing on one of the interns, a pretty girl named Irene. The visitor promptly descended on Irene, first with blows, and then— after the office strongmen had intervened— with colourful, not-safe-for-work insults that rang through the building.