Do you want to be a manager who tells your employees that even if they see something questionable going on, they should ignore it and get back to work? By positioning yourself as an accessible and responsive manager, you may be opening the door to some tattling, prattling, and babbling, but this is a small price to pay in order to keep this additional line of communication open.
The real issue in your situation should not be the frequency of the visits from this particular employee, but rather the accuracy and significance of what he tells you. If his comments prove to be little more than name-calling, or if the issues that he identifies are truly minuscule, then you should review the facts and your expectations with him. His behavior may even signify a need for some team-building in the department.
At the same time, check out the possibility that this individual may be running to your office because he feels that you are not seeing enough of what is going on in the department. Perhaps if he sees you spending time with the troops, he may feel less of a need to spend time reporting on them.
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