One of the first lessons most of us learn from our parents and/or grammar schoolteachers is not to snitch on another person. Unfortunately, some children never grasp how deeply their bad mouthing hurt classmates and eventually the little snitch grows up to become an adult snitch who joins the workplace only to make employees and managers’ lives difficult.

Most of us know that high productivity and trust are key components to any successful work team and company so that to have a backstabbing employee on board will, in time, destroy the office environment and lead excellent work performance employees down the ladder of efficiency.

Sadly, a handful of employees will stay, deal with the office snitch and surrender to becoming the snitch’s long-term target.

Another handful of employees will leave the company. The employer in turn will not only lose a high-quality employee and business revenue, but the employer is forced to spend time and money to recruit new hires.

Some employees will settle in a company where a snitch is, remain silent and stay far away from the firebrand as much as possible. These employees may feel that they are not any better if they report the snitch to management and/or the Human Resources Department. They may not realize that their silence and distance not only enables the snitch to run over his or her targets but also keeps the door open for the snitch to create a dysfunctional workplace for everyone.

Then there are those who feel insecure about their jobs and not only sway from filing a complaint, keeping quiet and/or distancing themselves, but he or she chooses to stoop down the snitch’s level and resort to talking badly about another team worker. In the same breath, insecure employees will use any mask possible to cast themselves in a favorable light with management in order to protect their jobs at the company. Equal to the leading snitch, these followers don’t care who has to pay the price as long as someone else is targeted.

Mature, peaceful-minded people know that talking unkindly behind another person’s back is immoral, bad for employee morale and camaraderie. But in the distorted mind of the snitch, to not bad mouth about person is a difficult habit to break. Of course, to the rest of the (sane) world, the actions of a snitch are difficult to understand. In reality, we have the common sense to know that backbiting does not bode well for a snitch’s career prospects and/or getting ahead in any company. But in the snitch’s mind, the opposite behavior is the only way, likely because he or she had gotten away with bad-mouthing people for years.

The Personality of a Snitch

1- If one of your co-workers constantly talks badly about other employees in public, there is a fair chance that they are talking badly and in more detail about other employees behind closed doors with the employer or management.

2- A person who has been denied a promotion may become resentful and jealous of those who were awarded their promotion and may lower his or her moral standards by spreading false rumors about the promoted employee to show that he or she should have gotten the promotion in the first place.

3- In corporations, snitches never successfully rise up the corporate ladder. Most upper managers are really too busy and have much more pressing tasks at hand than listen to childish complaints. But that still doesn't mean that the troublemaker will stop stabbing another employee in the back.

4- Although 99 percent of the time employees who work long hours are really working hard, either arriving early or leaving late because they are on a tight deadline or are overloaded with projects. But there is the chronic office presence that never seems to leave the office. He or she may be the office snitch who witnesses the comings and goings of others. To protect yourself, refrain from revealing too much about your personal life or projects you're working on because the snitch will definitely use the information against you.

We don't have to deal with snitches that deliberately pollute workplace environments. We can take action to protect ourselves by filing a complaint with the manager or the Human Resources department of any illegal, dangerous, unethical behaviors, serious conduct breaches, such as sexual harassment, embezzlement or threats of violence. If no actions result from your grievances, take them to the appropriate state regulatory department.

In the end, and in the eyes and mind of your employers/managers and co-workers is that if you have always gotten stellar performance reviews and have proved your value to the company, employers/managers will dismiss a co-worker's trivial complaints, tell him or her to stop complaining and return to work.

References
www.city.net, www.aclu.org, http://November.org/snitch, www.pbs.org, www.loveshack.org/forums, www.hrworld.com/features- (How to find and stop the workplace snitch?)