Workplace
"mobbing" is not generally a familiar term—it is not well-understood
in some English speaking countries. Some researchers claim that mobbing is
simply another name for bullying. Workplace mobbing can be considered as a
"virus" or a "cancer" that spreads throughout the workplace
via gossip, rumor and unfounded accusations. It is a deliberate attempt to
force a person out of their workplace by humiliation, general harassment, emotional
abuse and/or terror. Mobbing can be described as being "ganged up
on." Mobbing is executed by a leader (who can be a manager, a co-worker,
or a subordinate). The leader then rallies others into a systematic and
frequent "mob-like" behavior toward the victim.
Linda Shallcross,
Workplace Mobbing: Expulsion,
Exclusion, and Transformation, 2008
Bullying, Mobbing,
Emotional Abuse
In recent research conducted in Sweden, 33% of the women
workers responding to a study about witnessing workplace bullying behaviors
showed a higher prevalence of clinical depression and 16.4% of their male
counterparts showed the same.
Prof. Heinz Leymann, a Swedish psychologist studying an
extreme form of workplace bullying known as mobbing said, "Not
infrequently, mobbing spelled the end of the target’s career, marriage, health,
and livelihood."
In a Swedish study Prof. Leymann estimated that about twelve
percent of people who had committed suicide had recently been mobbed at work.
The effects of stress, anxiety and depression caused by bullying should not be
taken lightly.
If workplace mobbing is a new word for you, here is the
definition:
Mobbing is
·
EMOTIONAL ABUSE in the workplace.
·
"Ganging up" by co-workers,
subordinates or superiors, to force someone out of the workplace through rumor,
innuendo, intimidation, humiliation, discrediting, and isolation.
·
Malicious, nonsexual, nonracial, general
harassment.
So, everyone knows about sexual harassment and how
illegal it is, but many people do not realize that the hostile workplace
environment may have nothing to do with explicitly protected characteristics
and traits, like gender, religion, or sexual orientation. You need to know,
that it is strictly illegal to harass you, even if the harassment is based
solely on inter-personal relationship and conflict.
Here is the article written Noa Zanolli Davenport,
Ph.D., is a Swiss mediator, where she explains the negative consequences,
sources, and cost of workplace mobbing.
Millions of men and women of all ages, ethnic, and racial
backgrounds all across the U.S. hate going to work, gradually fall into despair
and often become gravely ill. Some flee from jobs they used to love, others
endure the situation unable to figure a way out. "Every day was like going
into battle. I never knew when the next bomb would be dropped. I was afraid to
trust anyone for fear they were the enemy. My physical and mental reserves were
depleted. I knew I had to have relief soon. But there was no letup," said
Diana when we asked how she felt each day. What is going on? Why is this happening?
How prevalent is this? What can be done?
What we are describing here has been identified as
"mobbing" and "bullying" at the workplace. Co-workers,
superiors or subordinates, attack a person's dignity, integrity and competence,
repeatedly, over a number of weeks, months or even years. A person is being
subjected to emotional abuse, subtly or bluntly, often falsely accused of
wrongdoing, and is persistently humiliated.
Dr. Heinz Leymann, a psychologist and medical scientist,
pioneered the research about this workplace issue in Sweden in the early
80ties. He identified the behavior as mobbing and described it as
"psychological terror" involving "hostile and unethical
communication directed in a systematic way by one or a few individuals mainly
towards one individual." Leymann identified some 45 typical mobbing
behaviors such as withholding information, isolation, badmouthing, constant
criticism, circulation of unfounded rumors, ridicule, yelling, etc.
Because the organization ignores, condones or even
instigates the behavior, it can be said that the victim, seemingly helpless
against the powerful and many, is indeed "mobbed." The result is
always injury -- physical or mental distress or illness, social misery, and
often, but not always, expulsion from the workplace. And sadly, the victims did
not have a reputation of not performing well, not meeting organizational
standards, or who could not get along with others to begin with. Quite the
contrary, more often than not, the targets had been esteemed members of the
organization.
Although mobbing and bullying behaviors overlap, mobbing
denotes a "ganging up" by the leader--organization, superior,
co-worker, or subordinate--who rallies others into systematic and frequent
"mob-like" behavior. In contrast to bullying, mobbing is clearly a
group behavior. Bullying, on the other hand, denotes a one-on-one harassment.
In a mobbing, management is often tacitly involved. This is why, in such a
case, a victim rarely can find recourse.
Mobbing can happen to anyone. It is not aggression
against someone who belongs to a protected class, i.e. discrimination based on
age, gender, race, creed, nationality, disability or pregnancy. It is therefore
that bullying/mobbing behaviors have been termed general or "status-blind"
harassment by Prof. David Yamada of the Suffolk University Law School.
Impact of Mobbing
Mobbing--the emotional abuse--is a form of violence. In
fact, in the book Violence at Work, published by the International Labor Office
(ILO) in 1998, mobbing and bullying are mentioned in the same list as homicide,
rape, or robbery. Even though bullying and mobbing behaviors may seem
"harmless," in contrast to rape or other manifestations of physical
violence, the effects on the victim--especially if the mobbing is happening
over an extended period of time--have been so devastating for individuals that
some have contemplated suicide. And, we cannot exclude that some cases of the
"going postal syndrome" may not also have been a consequence of what
those individuals perceived as emotional abuse on the job.
Mobbing and bullying affect primarily a person's
emotional well-being and physical health. Depending on the severity, frequency,
and duration of the occurrences and how resilient an individual may be, persons
may suffer from a whole range of psychological and physical symptoms: from
occasional sleep difficulties to nervous breakdowns, from irritability to
depression, from difficulties to concentrate, to panic- or even to heart
attacks. What were occasional absences may become frequent and extended sick
leaves.
Many persons who have become a target of a mobbing are
damaged to such an extent that they can no longer accomplish their tasks. At
the end, they resign--voluntarily or involuntary--are terminated, or forced
into early retirement. Ironically, the victims are portrayed as the ones at
fault, as the ones who brought about their own downfalls. And in numerous
instances, the symptoms after a person has been terminated or resigned, can
continue and intensify and have led to the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress
disorder, PTSD.
And it is not only a person's health and sense of
well-being that is seriously affected. Their families and their organizations
are gravely impacted as well. Relationships suffer, and company productivity is
impacted as energies revolve around the mobbing and divert attention from
important and significant tasks at hand.
How It Starts and Why It Happens
It often starts with a conflict, any type of conflict.
However, no matter how hard an individual may try to resolve an issue, it does
not get resolved. The individual does not seem to get recourse. The issue does
not go away and escalates to a point of no return.
What could have been resolved with a bit of good will and
the appropriate mechanisms in place, now becomes a contest between who is right
and who is wrong. Some of the accusations and demeaning attacks may be guided
by a scapegoat mentality, the need for personal power over others, and by
personal animosities, by fears or jealousies. Group-psychology and a complex
array of social-organizational dynamics begin to play their part.
How, you might ask, when there seem to be more structures
and laws designed to protect workers than ever before, is this particular
workplace behavior--mobbing--so prevalent and yet awareness about the issue so
scarce? We believe there are three reasons.
One is that mobbing behaviors are ignored, tolerated,
misinterpreted or actually instigated by the company or the organization's
management as a deliberate strategy. The second reason is that this behavior
has not yet been identified as a workplace behavior clearly different from
sexual harassment or discrimination. And thirdly, more often than not, the
victims are worn down. They feel exhausted and incapable of defending
themselves, let alone initiating legal action.
The Costs of Mobbing
In 1991 C. Brady Wilson, a clinical psychologist who
specializes in workplace trauma, wrote in the Personnel Journal (now Workforce
Magazine) that real or perceived abuse of employees amounted to a loss of
billions of dollars: "Workplace trauma, as psychologists refer to the
condition caused by employee abuse, is emerging as a more crippling and
devastating problem for employees and employers alike than all the other
work-related stresses put together." The actual costs in terms of lost
productivity, health care and legal costs, not to speak of the psycho-social
implications, are yet to be measured.
Dr. Harvey Hornstein, professor of social-organizational
psychology at Columbia University Teachers College, in his book Brutal Bosses
and Their Prey, estimated that as many as 20 million Americans face workplace
abuse on a daily basis--a near epidemic.
Awareness Grows
Nevertheless, awareness is growing. Bullying and mobbing
at work is increasingly being discussed in the media and in professional
organizations. Researchers in organizational behavior are now devoting their
attention to this topic and a number of articles have appeared in academic
journals and a handful of books have been written over the last three years
devoted to work abuse, brutal bosses, bullying, and mobbing.
What Can Be Done
Persons who have been mobbed or become targets of bullies
have several options. Most importantly, they need to understand that there is a
name for what they are experiencing, that the phenomenon is well known and is
increasingly being researched in this country. They need to understand that
they have become victimized and that there is very little that they could have
done differently. Secondly, they need to assess all their options in the short,
medium, and long run: Is there any way to gain recourse that they haven't tried
yet? Is finding another job within the company a possibility? Are they prepared
to look for another job? What do they need to do to prepare for the transition?
Do they need medical or therapeutic intervention? We advise people to weigh all
their options carefully, to be assertive and most importantly, to take control
of their situation. And, we advise to leave their workplace sooner rather than
later and accept temporary sacrifices rather than to endure ongoing humiliation
that could have much more serious health effects later.
Management too, needs to be vigilant and spot any early
signals of mobbing. A company policy that enforces respectful treatment of
employees and rewards civility at the workplace can go along the way in
preventing mobbing from occurring.
Because of the extensive literature and media coverage in
Europe, the awareness of mobbing in the workplace has become very widespread
there. Mobbing has not only become a household word in Scandinavia and in
German-speaking countries but several countries have enacted new proactive and
protective occupational safety laws, including emotional well-being on the job,
to address the mobbing behavior legally. For example, in 1993 the Swedish
National Board of Occupational Safety and Health has adopted an Ordinance
Concerning Victimization at Work. In addition, new organizations have been
created to help victims of mobbing all across Europe, and Australia. Measures
have been initiated in a relatively brief time period to deal with mobbing
behaviors, help mobbing victims and help prevent further mobbing from
occurring. For example, telephone hot lines have been installed and contact
addresses for receiving counseling or advice have been published in the daily
press.
Summary
Mobbing is emotional mistreatment, abuse, committed
directly or indirectly by a group of co-workers directed at anybody. People who
have been affected by mobbing are suffering immensely. Mobbing is as a serious
workplace issue most often leading to voluntary or non-voluntary resignation or
dismissal. The social and economic impact of the mobbing syndrome has yet to be
measured in quantitative terms in the U.S.
Mobbing can only persist as long as it is allowed to
persist. Organizational leadership plays the most important part in its
prevention. By enforcing decency, civility, and high ethical standards in the
workplace and by creating a nourishing environment, bullying and mobbing will
not surface. There are millions of enlightened managers and leaders and
thousands of companies that do just that. They serve as good examples and
places of refuge.
Sources and
Additional Information:
