The good old office grapevine has received a tremendous amount of bad press, some of which is unwarranted. If used properly, it can be a powerful career aid. It can provide you with a great deal of useful information, including rumors, many of which become fact. Gossip can be an intentional leak by top management of information we should know. Conveying a superior attitude about the grapevine could eliminate sources of information.
Smart people make time to manage their careers.
Cultivating sources of information makes sense. The political savvy can use the grapevine to their advantage, especially concerning leaks that forecast news of the future. For example, you may overhear that your firm is developing a marketing strategy designed to attract engineering and architectural firms. Therefore, you attend several functions of those professional associations, start connecting and develop a network of potential clients. The market plan is presented, and you have already nurtured leads that turn into major accounts.