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Bullying in the Workplace: Types, Facts, Effects, Prevention

Mobbing in the workplace includes bullying, intrigues, rumours and psychological terror against employees (so-called „bossing“), colleagues or even bosses (“staffing”) which occur systematically and over a longer period of time.

Forms of Mobbing

Bullying can include kidding somebody, keeping information away, spreading rumours or aspersing somebody. Also, discrimination is part of this. Leymann has recognized 45 forms of mobbing which are divided in categories:

• Attacks on the possibility of communication (e.g. interrupting, shouting, ignoring sb.)
• Attacks on the social relationships (e.g. prohibition of communication)
• Attacks on social reputation (e.g. spreading rumours, intrigation)
• Attacks on the quality of profession or life (e.g. huring criticism in the workplace, requiring of unnecessary exercises, conscious over- or underchallenging)
• Attacks on one´s health (e.g. violence, sexual harassment, defamation, aggression)

With bossing, the offenders are persons which find themselves above the victim in the hierarchy of the company. With horizontal mobbing, both of them are on the same level. With staffing subordinates are mobbing persons which are above them in the hierarchy.

Causes

The causes can not be defined precisely and are subject to discussions among experts.

• Competition, pressure or fear of losing the job
• Incompetent bosses which give unclear or conflicting advises or distribute work in an unfair way
• Unclear competences
• Monotony and stress
• Over- and underchallenging
• Organizational changes
• A strategy of the management to make disagreeable employees cancel and by doing so avoiding dismissal protection and severance payments
• Unclarified conflicts between colleagues or between employee and boss
• Social background of the victim

Consequences

Mobbing puts enormous psychological pressure on the victim, who might reat in the following ways:

• Demotivation
• Inner cancellation and lack of activity
• Signs of stress such as headache and insomnia
• Psychological deseases such as anxiety states and depression
• Physical deseases such as blood pressure, cardialgia, problems with stomach and bowel, myogelosis and wrong bearing
• Insecurity and loss of self-confidence

These can cause long periods of sickness and might even result in working disability of the victims which again will cause cancellation, unemployment, reduction in earning capacity and early retirement. Alongside these effects for the mobbed individual, enormous economical costs are the result.

To avoid and prevent Mobbing, the following is recommended for victims:

• Try to relax and deflect yourself. Sometimes, vacation or a time-out is enough to ease the situation
• In cases of mobbing, talk to your boss or colleagues
• If this does not help or is impossible, contact the worker´s council or social advice bureau
• Set limits for the offender
• Answer back as soon as possible
• Search for help and support among bosses and colleagues
• Talk to the offender. Include a third party who can act as witness, moderator or middleman
• Contact helplines and self-help groups
• Write a „mobbing-diary“ and generate statistics about every form of mobbing. If there are witnesses, write it down. Note your reactions (heavy sweating, tachycardia, headache etc. In a possible trial, this diary will be a great evidence
• Change your workplace, or even cancel

As counteraction and to prevent employers and employees from mobbing, the following is recommended:

• Practice active management of conflicts. Talk about problems as soon as they occur and make sure the discussion do not become personal
• Consider that not everything can be regarded as mobbing. Sometimes somebody is just in a bad mood. However, make sure that aggression is not enduringly focussed on one person
• Build up a company culture in which constructive teamwork and appreciating one´s colleagues is a main issue
• Offer support and help in terms of mobbing. This includes institutionalising mobbing within the company agreement
• Offer mediation. This is intended to stop the offender and help him with the change of his behaviour
• Labour protection includes measures that avoid mobbing. If you do not act, the victim might aim for legal action and claim financial compensation
• You can cancel mobbers without notice
• If you hear about a case of mobbing, you are obliged to react by taking measures such as appraisal interviews, calls to order, cancellation or relocation

• Psychology research shows even in hostile working environments, employees reluctant to leave jobs; eurekalert, May 14, 2009