Rumor mill churns trouble in town

HOOKSETT, N.H. -- No one knows exactly where the rumor started. But everyone in this small town knows what happened when the gossip -- about a close relationship between two married town employees -- finally reached the ear of one of its subjects.

Town Administrator David Jodoin was deeply troubled by the rumors about his personal life. He complained to the Hooksett Town Council, which launched an investigation of the gossip at the town offices. When the brief probe was over, the town moved quickly to action, and fired four town employees for spreading the rumor.

If town officials hoped to quell the chatter, their action has had the opposite result. The town hall drama has become the hottest topic at Robie's Country Store, the unofficial epicenter of buzz about local affairs; the rumor has been aired in the pages of local newspapers. And the firings of the four women -- long time employees who had earned stellar performance reviews -- have unleashed a wave of disbelief and anger among many residents.

Critics of the town have boiled their argument down to one question: Is there an employee anywhere who isn't guilty of gossiping about co workers?

Town Council members have offered no defense of their decision, but Debra Ford, a lawyer for the town, said at a public hearing last week that the rumor spread about Jodoin was serious, with potential to damage his marriage and career, and was not "some little gossip, like 'oh, she dyes her hair.' "

The lawyer who investigated the rumors for the town, Lauren Simon Irwin , said the employees' behavior was dishonest, and therefore cause for discipline under personnel rules, because they knew the alleged affair was fictional when they repeated the rumor. The lawyer for the former employees said they were unsure of the truth.

Dozens of Hooksett residents attended last week's hearing, which was held in public at the request of the dismissed employees. Sternly ordered by the council not to speak, the crowd ridiculed the proceedings wordlessly, releasing an occasional chorus of groans, sighs, and snickers.

"This is really not a murder trial," one exasperated spectator remarked, as the lawyer for the terminated workers unveiled a large white board plastered with glowing excerpts from his clients' performance reviews.

In an energetic, two-hour presentation, the employees' lawyer, B. J. Branch , unleashed a battery of reasons why the women should get their jobs back. The firings were unfair because they were not preceded by verbal or written warnings, he said, and because other employees who also gossiped were not disciplined. The free-speech rights of government employees have been upheld by the US Supreme Court, he said -- and even if the cause for termination had been just, the council doesn't have the right to fire employees, said Branch.

He characterized the gossip as an honest attempt to sort through a confusing situation.

"There was a period of time when the rumor was being discussed when people weren't sure if it was true or not," he said. "People didn't say, 'Something's going on,' they said, 'What's going on?' . . . Maybe, just maybe, [Jodoin's] actions were creating a perception."

One of the employees was also rebuked for using an expletive to refer to Jodoin. Branch said the worker acknowledged that she had said it once, and it was wrong, but he said the comment should not have been a reason to fire her.

The Town Council has until May 25 to confirm the firings or reverse them. The employees -- former director of assessing Sandy Piper , former code enforcement officer Michelle Bonsteel , and their assistants, Jessica Skorupski and Joanne Drewniak -- plan to sue the town if they are not reinstated.

Harsh penalties for gossip are rare, but not unheard of. Employees at state liquor stores in Cumberland County, N.C., can be fired for gossiping under a rule enacted last year. In Maryland two years ago, an aide to the Republican governor was fired for spreading rumors that the mayor of Baltimore, a Democrat, had cheated on his wife.

The best response to a rumor is a truthful rebuttal, said Nicholas DiFonzo , a psychology professor who studies rumors at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He said rumors can be deeply damaging, but he also supported Branch's view of gossip as a normal way to work through uncertainty.

"People are going to try to figure out the facts of the matter, and they view that as their basic right," DiFonzo said.

The report on the Hooksett gossip investigation reads like a manual on common office tensions, mixed with hints of "Peyton Place." Written by Irwin and provided by Branch, it replaces most employees' names with letters to protect their privacy.

It begins with a discouraging assertion: that the rumors and name-calling that led to the firings "are only a small part of a larger dysfunctional environment at the Town offices."

"Nearly every witness confirmed that gossip, whispering, and an unfriendly environment are causing poor morale and interfering with the efficient performance of Town business," Irwin wrote.

One source of whispering was a new job created for employee "A," with a generous salary, which provoked anger and charges of favoritism.

It was "A" who first told Jodoin of the rumor about them, in March. Jodoin, who is married with two children, was upset by the threat to his family life and career.

Attempts to trace the rumor's progress followed: "A" heard the rumor from "B," who is on leave from work. "B" heard it from an employee who was later fired; "B" later heard "C" repeat it. After "F" made a snide comment to "A," "A" wondered if "F" might be fanning the flames of the gossip.

"H" could not recall who told her the rumor. In any case, "A" confirmed there was no basis for the gossip, and said the office doors "are always open when she and David are in there together."

The report also probes the expletive used by one employee and offers up some unsolicited confessions.

" 'F' admitted that she had referred to David as 'the Fuhrer' during the floods but she did this to his face and does not believe that it was interpreted as disrespectful," the investigator wrote.

Jenna Russell can be reached at jrussell@globe.com.