  The gauge dependence of the complex fermion quasiparticle poles corresponding
to soft collective excitations is studied in hot gauge theories at one-loop
order and next-to-leading order in the high-temperature expansion, with a view
towards going beyond the leading order hard thermal loops and resummations
thereof. We find that for collective excitations of momenta k ~ eT the
dispersion relations are gauge independent, but the corresponding damping rates
are gauge dependent. For k<<eT and in k \to 0 limit, both the dispersion
relations and the damping rates are found to be gauge dependent. The gauge
dependence of the position of the complex quasiparticle poles signals the need
for resummation. Possible cancellation of the leading gauge dependence at
two-loop order in the case of QED is briefly discussed.
