Gossipy boss

[2sly4you]

My line manager is unprofessional. She gives out confidential information about students and teachers, is at the centre of intrigues and generally stirs the pot.

I don't want to be unprofessional like her but she has drawn me in a few times. It always goes "This is confidential but..." or "it's just you and me but..." or "this goes no further but..."

At first I thought she didn't have a filter and couldn't help the leak of information but after some years working for her, I know she can definitely keep secrets. Anything that makes her look bad, astonishingly, that she can keep a filter on.
She obviously gossips about me and I called her on that when it got back to me.

Help me! How do I professionally disentangle myself from this petty bullshit? I only receive this unwanted gossip nuggets and don't send them on, but I want to stop getting them at all.

(The head of school, her line manager, is a piece of work. There is no recourse there)

[Phineyj]

I can't see any real solution here (other than changing job) but try to avoid speaking to her unless others are there? I can see that would be hard in line management meetings though!

[2sly4you]

That's actually quite a relief. I've been worrying at the problem, thinking if I just say a magic formulation of words, she'll stop the nightmare behaviour. But yeah, you're right. It's not going to change.