Fuck 'em all and your fine and *support* *support* *support* ...
Or... Funny thing about junior High school games: They can be won.
Create a good mental map of the social dynamic. It is often a few members setting the tone, and a few key horses giving them a ride and becoming the enablers, the more submissive ones have an incredible social power in their choice of who they become submissive too and who's approval they seek, because that orients the direction of office atmosphere.
Determine who's connected to who in what way and you'll be able to figure out the nature of the social exchange you don't get to see in front of your face, which is where the bitching goes. An easy tactic to acomplish that is creating a few contradicting versions of gossip and spreading them at different points in the social map, this way you can see the pipelines of what comes out where, and more importantly, when people hear confusing stories they show their disorientation, or when they agree with the first version they hear blindly they express the confrontation when encountering the second story. You can also gear those to depend on bias to see who's biased for or against who - can be done in a day or two easily enough. Once you have that map, you know which key players would be in a position to spread around their issues with you, and which one of them you can get on your side. Curve your own niche, grab those key enablers among them, and you disband the current network of bitchiness.
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