So, bear with me a minute here...

I work for a communications department that is part of the central IT organization of a university. As such, we are usually the last thanked and first blamed when any major IT issue isn't properly communicated to the campus.

Anyway, my manager left the university in December. Since then, her boss (our director) has taken over those roles, due to budget cuts. We pretty much expected that.

Here's the thing that really irritates me...before my boss left, she was a paranoid nervous wreck. She had been that way for YEARS here. Every time something would change, she'd freak out saying that we were all going to get fired or RIF'd, etc. I'm not kidding...she did this for YEARS.

When she left, we all kind of breathed a sigh of relief.

Well, it appears she still talks with one of my coworkers and recently told this coworker that she knows we're all going to lose our jobs on July 1 (start of the fiscal year). How she knows this, who knows. She never really KNEW anything when she was here, seeing as I was supposed to have been fired three times, and RIF'd twice. *shrug*

I'm just so damned tired of hearing rumor and conjecture in an office environment that is supposed to be about COMMUNICATIONS. I think my former boss needs to just butt the hell out, but I have no way of making that happen. I can ignore her, of course, but at the same time, my coworker is freaking out about it.

Sorry, I just had to vent to someone, because I have too many colleagues on my FB. lol

Geesh, is there a requirement that every workplace have someone like that on the payroll?

I began asking people "How do you know that?" and pinning them to the wall on their "sources". the conversations usually concluded with me telling them, "You know .... I've heard that crap so often that I just ignore it anymore until it actually happens. Most of the time, the "source" is fulla crap and it never comes to fruition to the level that the rumor said it would."

If everyone wants to spend their energy getting all worked up about something that may not happen anyway, let them. I, personally, have better things to do with my time and energy!

So sorry that this is happening to you. It seems like most workplaces have some people who just can't function without gossip, stirring the pot, and living a life full of chaos and uncertainty. Takes too much energy to live that way in my opinion, but I think Indydebi's response to people like that is great!