I hear a lot of office gossip. It usually starts with one person making a negative remark. If the response by someone else in the group is positive, in defense of or in support of the one being criticized, then usually the whole thing is dropped.

Sometimes the subject is changed by one of our coterie as a way of defusing the situation, but I have the impression that when the negative comment is allowed to pass unchallenged, it is accepted as true by default.

Recently I've tried another strategy. I've taken the negative comment and called the speaker's bluff. "The kitchenette is dirty," says the complainant.

"Well, then," says I, "I will write up the offending person who left granola scattered all over the floor. Do you want your name, as the complaining party, written with Ms. or Mrs.?" Just saying I will speak to the offender doesn't mean anything but a formal written complaint is something else again.

My reputation is that I do, in fact, take action on what I say I will do.

This approach has brought the gossip fest to a screeching halt more than once. A new topic, more personally neutral, is quickly introduced (today, for instance, the increase in California State withholding for income tax) and the personal "dissing" ceases.

I've called their bluff. Either get serious about a serious issue or knock it off.