PSSST . . . have you heard? Gossiping at work is good for you!

New research has revealed that chatting round the water cooler is an ideal way to let off steam and can help workers relax or even discuss ideas.

Employers have now been urged to encourage people to gossip as it could help them become more creative.

Interviews by an occupational psychologist among 100 nurses found that some spent up to four hours a day gossiping.

Katherine Waddington, of the School of Nursing at London's City University, found that some people were better at gossiping than others.

The best were people who could tell a good story, listen and retell an interesting piece of news.

But Ms Waddington also discovered sad gossipers who tried to become the centre of attention and vindictive gossipers who spread nasty rumours.

One of the NHS Trusts involved in the research opened a so-called rumour hotline as an experiment for staff to check out anything they were worried about after hearing it on the rumour mill.

But, according to Ms Waddington, no-one called because people preferred to talk between themselves.

George Endos, a senior lecturer in psychology at Newcastle University, said some people gossiped for the same reason as they read stories about celebrities and watched TV soap operas which often feature conflict and rows.

"Humans are social animals, they need to exchange information about themselves and the world. But human beings also take delight in other people's misfortunes."

In the workplace, people resorted to gossip when they couldn't get hard information, said Mr Endos.

"Where there is no reliable information coming from management, gossip tends to fill the information gap. Unfortunately they can get distorted and end up as Chinese whispers, which are incorrect and can actually be damaging."