The Top 10 Things to Understand about Mobbing

Originally Submitted on 8/14/2002.

Mobbing in the workplace has long been studied in Europe (just look it up on a search engine). Now authors Elliott, Davenport, and Schwartz discuss this disturbing phenomenon in America in Mobbing: Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace. It's about collective assault in the corner office, in cubbies, on the assembly line, or in the board room.

This book is a serious call to action to decent human beings -- be they managers, CEOs, or employees; and describes a syndrome coaches, counselors, trainers and therapists need to recognize.

1. A mob is one of the most vicious subcultures in any society.

Powerfully described in the classic, "The Ox Bow Incident," we understand that a mob behaves in a way no individual human would. "Single-focused, whipped to a frenzy by a puffed-up martinet and unfettered by normal restraints of morality," writes book reviewer Mary Bradley, "the mob is merciless in its assault." In the worst-case scenario we have a lynching or a holocaust.

2. Did you not know immediately what this term "mobbing" meant as applied to the work world?

"People are aware of it, but they never had a name for it," says Elliott. "When we speak to people, they know immediately what we are talking about. One individual referred to it as "barnyard mentality," similar to chickens pecking.

3. Study after study in psychology proves that people draw a perverse strength from the group and will do in a group what they would never do alone.

Normal moral behavior--even decent behavior--is discarded (similar to a gang rape). The manager whose reports decide to drive him out... the competent but beautiful new receptionist who's pulled down by jealous co-workers... the manager who becomes threatened by the talents of a report ...

4. Done by peers, subordinates and superiors, the goal is to force someone out using gossip, ostracism, intimidation, discreditation, humiliation, and just plain meanness.

The blame is projected on the victim, who, 'gas lighted,' becomes confused, has trouble perceiving correctly (that people could really do this), and accepts that he or she is incompetent, to blame, etc.

5. Dr. Heinz Leymann, German industrial psychologist, is credited for identifying the syndrome in Europe, Japan and Australia where he studied it for nearly 20 years.

He lived in Sweden and estimated that 15% of the suicides in Sweden were the result of mobbing in the workplace. Mobbing is cruelty in the extreme.

6. Mobbing is a group bullying process that can go until the job is done -- even years.

The mobber(s) interviewed often claimed they didn't know they were harming anyone.

7. Mobbing is a particularly insidious form of emotional abuse, and the impact on the individual can be devastating.

The authors cite cases of individuals unable ever to return to work after mobbing. Mobbing is also sickening to watch.

8. Mobbing is a serious behavioral risk-management issue for organizations, caution the authors.

Mobbing destroys morale, erodes trust, cripples initiative, and results in dysfunction, absenteeism, resignations, guilt, anxiety, paranoia, negativity, and marginal production. Key players leave, morale is devastated, and the effects are long-lasting.

9. Mobbing is a "widespread, vicious, workplace tort [civil wrongs recognized by law as grounds for a lawsuit--and in this case an intentional tort],"

says Scott H. Peters, Esq. of The Peters Law Firm. P.C., Iowa (quoted in the article "Did You Hear of Mobbing?" by Elliott.

10. Mobbing is difficult to stop once it gets going, but managers can learn to recognize the patterns.

In the book they even cite cases where HR managers were 'ordered' by superior 'mobbers' to support a mobbing process.

In personal correspondence with Ms. Elliott, she told me that people often come up to her after her talks and say, "This will never happen again on my watch," which is heartening.

Emotional intelligence (EI) in the work place is one of the antidotes to mobbing.

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