I had a rumour recently spread around at work about me. Apparently I was saying malicious things about another co-worker.
Now, anyone who knows me knows that I'm the cheeriest, happiest person in the world and someone who brightens people's days rather than putting them down. No one understands how the rumour could be true, but I've had my front end manager talk to me about it and I've had another co-worker tell me that she overheard a group of girls gossiping about me in the employee lounge. I don't know what about, but I'm certain it had to do with me complaining to the front end manager that x employee left a huge mess at the desk for me to clean up the next morning = same employee did not do her job.
The front end manager must've disciplined her on it and out of embarassment / anger, she's decided to talk smack about me with other employees. I personally think that the others weren't really involved; moreso, she instigated a negative discussion and others just sat there and went "Yeah" or something. Again, I wasn't there to see if they, too, were being "mean," but I definitely prefer to think that they weren't.