Mobbing at work: what it is, reasons, how to resist, prevention of mobbing

All vacancies promise a friendly work team, but is this true in practice? A team cannot exist without contradictions and conflicts, but this is useful provided that the conflicts are constructive. And if conflicts are a normal phenomenon, then mobbing (emotional abuse) always has a destructive impact on the individual, group and productivity.

Mobbing: what is it?

Mobbing is psychological terror in the workplace that occurs from colleagues or management. He can turn even his favorite professional activity into a nightmare. In simple words, the concept of “mobbing” implies one of the types of bullying. Therefore, it is incorrect to highlight the differences between bullying and mobbing. The second is a subtype of the first. Terror appears in many guises. This can be gossip and ridicule, misinformation, slander, nagging, intimidation, and ignoring. Mobbing and bullying are especially common in the educational environment. All manifestations of mobbing in conflictology are conventionally combined into two types:

1. Latent. Any hidden methods of bullying a team member when it is externally difficult to determine the presence of pressure. A striking example is the silent ignoring of one of the employees by the majority of the team.
2. Open. These are any manifestations visible to the naked eye. For example, attacks and insults, ridicule.

What is bullying used for at work? To find out this, let’s turn to the definition of mobbing in psychology given in the popular publication “Territory of Science”: “Mobbing is understood as group terror, bullying against one of the employees by his colleagues, subordinates or superiors, carried out with the aim of forcing him to leave. place of work or weaken the degree of one’s social (professional) influence.” For example, a common situation today is mobbing at school in relation to a teacher who does not want to give a grade “through cronyism.”

5 Most Common Behaviors

The main stages of the development of terrorism

When studying mobbing at work and how to combat it, it is important to consider the key stages of its development. This will help to identify manifestations of persecution in time and begin to fight them. For what? To prevent the victim’s condition from worsening and the aggressors from achieving their goal – dismissal. There are five stages in the development of terrorism:

1. Formation of prerequisites. There is a reason to start applying pressure. This can be caused by any conflicts and contradictions, as well as a difficult emotional situation in the team. The reasons, as well as the consequences of mobbing in an organizational environment, will be discussed in more detail below.
2. Initial stage. The team unites, discussing the object of persecution. Some (not yet coordinated) actions against him are emerging. He himself is experiencing his first emotional breakdowns.
3. Active attacks. Expressed in concerted acts of bullying. This can be collective disinformation, ridicule and caustic barbs, and the spread of slander. Any actions and even the very presence of a “scapegoat” are perceived with dissatisfaction.
4. Ignoring. Bullying moves into a new stage - the general isolation of the victim from the team. They deliberately stop noticing her and exclude her from the life of the company outside the work area. Therefore, they deliberately forget to invite you to holidays and any events.
5. Loss of a job. Not understanding how to deal with mobbing at work, a person prefers to leave it. If he does not do this on his own, he is forced to openly or his professional activities are specifically problematized.

Bossing, outing and discrimination. What to do if you are bullied at work?

“The pressure was extremely powerful”

Vera (the heroine's name has been changed) worked as the head of a department at a Perm university.
She got this position in 2020 on the recommendation of her friend. According to Vera, a good team was formed in the department, there was a friendly atmosphere within the team, but relations with the university management did not work out. It all started with a business communication course she taught for employees. During the courses, Vera criticized the speech of the administration and the texts of documents that are developed at the educational institution. The bosses didn't like it. The second conflict occurred when the rector ordered her to give teachers documents confirming that they had completed advanced training courses. According to Vera, in fact, the courses were not conducted, so she refused to sign the documents: “I am a principled, law-abiding person, the responsibility for training, including me, is - why should I do this? I’m the head of the department, I’m also responsible for this.” At first, Vera believed that these two conflicts were the reason for her bullying by her manager, but then she realized that this would have happened in any case.

“A person of my type is a priori not suitable for this leader. We had different points of view on organizing the educational process. The rector behaved as if, between the quality of education and income, he was, without hesitation, ready to choose the second, even at the expense of the first. A person like me is inconvenient for him. He needs another subordinate: one who agrees and agrees even to actions that are not entirely clean.”

Photo: Veronika Bystrykh

Reference

Psychologists distinguish two main types of mobbing. Horizontal - in which a person is discriminated against by a colleague or group of colleagues standing on approximately the same rung of the career ladder. And vertical, when bosses engage in bullying against their subordinates. This phenomenon is called "bossing".

According to Vera, the rector always chose a victim for bullying. At first, during operational meetings that were held weekly, he humiliated the head of one of the departments. Soon he quit, and Vera became the next object of pressure: at the same weekly operational meetings, the manager put pressure on her, spoke disparagingly, and tried to intimidate her.

Then he began holding regular meetings with members of her department. The subordinates supported Vera, so the rector began to bully the entire department. “You are like a bone in my throat,” “Are you an elite department? No department behaves like this!” “You don’t know how to work at all!” he told them in the heat of the moment. Vera says that after such meetings the employees felt unwell and drank sedatives. Her closest colleagues became her friends, the rest kept aloof and advised her to quit. Some university staff viewed her negatively because she “created a lot of problems.” Since August 2020, Vera’s salary began to decline sharply - by five to seven thousand monthly. In September, the work of the department was blocked: finding more and more new reasons, the rector refused to sign current documents.

“The pressure was extremely powerful. The department was assigned tasks that were not within its competence and which were impossible to complete. Deadlines were set for the work, which were impossible to meet, at least because the rector himself prevented their implementation: he deliberately delayed the documents and did not sign them. All this was similar to the plot of the fairy tale “Cinderella”: the evil stepmother gave the girl so many instructions that she could only cope with them with the help of the good fairy. But we didn’t have such a fairy, and every unfulfilled order was punished.”

To take a break, Vera wrote a leave application, but the rector, under various pretexts, refused to sign it, and then she contacted the labor inspectorate and the prosecutor's office. The departments conducted an inspection, found violations, and issued an order to the institution. One day, important documents disappeared from the department, and on a day off, someone turned on Vera’s computer and spent half an hour (this was evident from special programs) studying its contents. They collected dirt on her. Over the last two or three months of work, Vera received two reprimands and two reprimands. She has already challenged one remark; claims to cancel the remaining three disciplinary sanctions are now being considered in court. As a result, the department headed by Vera was completely disbanded, and all employees were fired. They filed lawsuits for illegal layoffs.

Photo: Veronika Bystrykh

Vera filed a claim against the rector for discrimination based on her subordinate official position (Article No. 136 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Discrimination, that is, violation of the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of a person and a citizen depending on his official position, committed by a person using his official position, is punishable by a fine, deprivation of the right to hold certain positions, compulsory labor or imprisonment.

Vera talked to several lawyers, they all advised her to leave this idea. The lawyers explained that the article on discrimination in Russia does not work, and it is useless to protect the rights of a person who has been discriminated against at work: “you will only throw money away.” She decided to abandon this claim.

“I was sitting in my office and I was shaking”

Anna (the character's name has been changed) works in a cultural institution. She manages a small department, Anna has four people subordinate to her. She started having problems with her colleagues in mid-October 2020. Then they wanted to appoint her as the head of a significant project, and “some people didn’t like it.” Anna Maria's colleague (name changed), who heads another department, did not like this appointment the most. They work in positions of the same level, both have higher education in their specialty, while Anna is younger and her salary is higher. Maria was also a contender for the position of manager of a new project.

After the offer was made to Anna, she asked her superiors to give her time to think.

“I thought for three days, I was very worried, because at the same time I was writing a dissertation. I understood that if I managed this project, I would sit at work all the time, and there would be very little time for my dissertation. On the other hand, this is a prospect for career growth. I decided to accept the offer. Four days after this, the boss called me to her place. She was all red, I’ve never seen her like that before.”

She said that she was in a hurry and that Anna would not manage this project. At first Anna even felt relief, “a stone was lifted from her soul.” But a week later, one of her colleagues told Anna that there was a rumor going around the institution that she was not allowed to lead the project because of her sexual orientation. Those who were supposed to work on the project came to the boss and said that they did not want to be led by a lesbian.

Photo: Veronika Bystrykh

“It was a low blow, it hurt me. Firstly, only a few people knew about my orientation. My girlfriend came to my work, I wrote VKontakte posts about my wife - you could have guessed it. But you might not have guessed it, I don’t know. I had a lot of posts about my wife even before we started living together. Okay, people put the puzzle together, but why did they go and tell their bosses about it?! Rumors that I was not assigned a project due to orientation began to spread throughout the institution. The reaction was different. I have no idea if they knew before.”

Anna came to work, said hello to her colleagues, but they ignored her. Then a conflict occurred. Anna compiled the requirements for working texts and images. Because she framed this as a requirement rather than a recommendation, a scandal erupted. Anna was accused of exploiting her colleagues, while presenting her own demands to them. Those who were dissatisfied expressed their complaints not personally, but through Anna’s subordinates. The girl who had to listen to this was in tears. Then Anna plucked up courage and went to her colleague Olga (name changed), who, according to her assumption, could tell about her orientation. In response, she heard that it was her own fault, and in fact she was not given the project because she was a bad employee, that she had invented everything herself and thus wanted to attract attention to herself.

Reference

One of the manifestations of mobbing is outing. This is the name given to publicly disclosing information about a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity without their consent. Outing is the opposite in meaning to coming out—the voluntary disclosure of one’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Outing may be considered a violation of the right to privacy.

Then about once a week conflicts occurred at work. Anna approached her boss to tell her about the situation. She said that she understood why conflicts occur and suggested that we deal with this later, when there was not so much to do. Anna did not try to talk to the main aggressor, Maria: “when she saw her, everything inside shrank.” The rest of the colleagues behaved indifferently and discussed gossip. Anna didn’t know how to tell her parents about this, and decided to share it with her sister. She replied that she fully understood Anna’s colleagues, “because it is impossible to immediately accept that a lesbian works or lives next to you.” In December there was a holiday at work, to which Anna invited her girlfriend.

“My intuition told me that under no circumstances should she be taken to this holiday, that if she came there it would be a disaster. But that day we had things to do after work, and I didn’t want her hanging out on the street. At first we agreed that she would wait in the cafe. But many colleagues know her, especially young people. And one of them said: “Why would Dasha (name changed) wait for you in the cafe, let her come to us and just stand on the sidelines.” I decided that the building had three floors and no one would notice her.”

Now Anna believes that this decision was a mistake and worked like a detonator. She planned to attend the director's congratulatory speech and then quietly leave. But Maria and other colleagues approached her. Maria began to shout that it was not customary for the institution to bring their loved ones to the holidays, that Anna had already received a lot of comments about her behavior, that because of this behavior she had conflicts at work and it was because of this that she was not entrusted with a major project . Anna became ill and was taken home.

Photo: Veronika Bystrykh

“After that, I didn’t know how I would get back to work. I needed to throw out all this accumulated anger, aggression and pain somewhere. And I wrote a post on VKontakte. After that, they told me not to read the comments under any circumstances and to not go online for several days. Then I calmed down a little and wrote a second post, and I think it’s deliberate. If the first one was quite emotional, then the second one involved processing everything that happened. I understand that I myself was wrong; my girlfriend shouldn’t have come to my work. But they tried to accuse me of something I didn’t do. I don’t think that my sexuality is bad, I don’t think that I’m a bad employee.”

In the comments to the post, opinions were divided: some supported Anna, others wrote that she was throwing mud at a good team and writing lies. Anna spent two weeks on sick leave, and then went back to work. Colleagues behaved as if nothing had happened. Anna does not communicate with Maria and Olga.

“It was very difficult to return to work, the first days I was just shaking, I sat in my office and I was shaking. Then I realized that there was no threat from anyone. Everyone seemed to treat me normally. Now everything is quiet, calm, no one bothers me. I just regained my inner balance, I wouldn’t want to lose it again. I thought about this a lot. There are mediators at school, why aren’t they at work? If there were mediators or psychologists in the work team, perhaps there would be fewer problems. After all, management doesn’t always care about this. Former colleagues wrote to me that they also had conflicts in this team and that they quit because of it. But they did not disclose what conflicts there were and what they were connected with. They left me behind when there was a threat to my health. They fell behind others only in two cases: when a person quit, or when he said that he would sue.”

Why do aggressors bully and observers remain silent?

Psychologists at the Institute of Social Sciences Olga Muraveyskaya and Maria Naimushina say that aggressors bully because they don’t know how or don’t want to achieve what they want differently. Violence is one of the most accessible and biologically “simple” mechanisms of social interaction. The ability to negotiate is a more complex construct that requires preliminary learning and skill development. If this link of training is missed, a person is tempted to dominate by any means, especially in a situation of vertical subordination: manager - employee.

“It’s easy to slide to the level of instinctive reactions and act by force, trying to push out an irritating person from your environment,” explains Olga Muraveyskaya. “The “aggressor” wants to feel comfortable, wants his picture of the world not to be subject to any kind of crushing from the outside and to be stable and monolithic. As soon as a person appears who can destroy it, you instinctively want to destroy him. The “aggressor” wants to maintain his calm, his confidence, and he is forced to use force so that the person who irritates him disappears. Bullying is a very tempting and attractive path, very easy. Especially if a person does not have alternative communication skills, but has many years of experience of bullying at school and violent relationships in the family.”

“Aggressors” do not want to deal with their emotions. They use a variety of methods to hurt the chosen “victim” and expel him from their world: they find fault with the results of work, organize a boycott, spread gossip, cooperate with others, increasing pressure on the person. The more often the “aggressor” attacks, the more he gets the hang of it and understands that it works - “finally, it’s not just me who is suffering.”

Photo: Veronika Bystrykh

The behavior of “observers” is influenced by many factors. Some do not feel strong enough to intervene in the situation and bring negativity upon themselves. When a person remains neutral, when he is indifferent and unnoticed, he seems to remove himself from the blow. As soon as the “observer” enters the stage and indicates his position, he becomes visible and vulnerable. Many people do not want to find themselves in such a role and ruin relationships with other employees. Someone is afraid of losing their job, and thereby jeopardizing the financial well-being of their family.

Olga Muraveyskaya and Maria Naimushina advise observers not to join in the bullying if they lack the strength to openly oppose it. Avoid sharing gossip and do not exaggerate the “shortcomings” of another person. The bullying is reinforced by the tacit consent of the majority. Some are afraid to discuss this phenomenon with colleagues because they believe that they support what is happening, although in fact the situation of bullying is unpleasant for many. This is called a “fictitious norm”: it is destroyed if people begin to demonstrate their disagreement with what is happening.

“You can say: “colleagues, you are going too far, we have a working environment here, let’s not get personal,” advises Maria Naimushina. “This is how a person means that the issue is not about a specific employee, that he is not “for” or “against” someone, but, in principle, for work ethics. In this way, it is possible to return the team to some universal human values ​​and focus on the production process. And, if there are other people in the team who also don’t like this situation, perhaps they will join and support you in your efforts to normalize work relations.”

How to deal with bullying at work?

“If we are talking about school bullying, we have ways to influence the destructive processes in the children’s team - we can talk with the school administration, with teachers, with parents, with children. When bullying occurs at work, few outsiders will be able to intervene. A psychologist cannot come and begin to heal the team at his own request or at the request of the injured employee. Who can shake up this story and have enough power to change the situation? Nobody except the leader. And if the manager is aware of and supports this system, then it is impossible to correct it.”

Sometimes the manager is interested in bullying in the team and provokes it himself. This way he can build relationships separately with each employee and maintain his authority. At the same time, at the right moment, the manager can pit employees against each other and manipulate them. It happens that he does not bully anyone, but treats the tense atmosphere in the team indifferently: “these are your concerns, sort it out yourself.” Such a leader underestimates the destructive influence of bullying and its paralyzing effect. Sometimes he really doesn't know what's going on. In this case, employees have the opportunity to talk about bickering in the team, which negatively affects productivity, since work fades into the background. If a manager is aware of the danger of bullying, it is in his power to stop unhealthy relationships among his subordinates. If the manager remains “deaf” to the problem, psychologists advise taking care of yourself and quitting.

“It is unrealistic to sue colleagues for bullying under the Labor Code of the Russian Federation”

Candidate of Legal Sciences, honorary employee of the prosecutor's office Galina Tarasova says that claims under Art. 3 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation on discrimination carried out through bullying in work collectives are rare. Effective judicial practice on the imposition of administrative fines on employers under Art. 5.62 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation for discrimination also does not exist. If they can be punished, it is the recovery of moral damages in favor of employees whom the courts reinstate or cancel orders for disciplinary sanctions against them. But according to established judicial practice, these are small amounts of money. Such workers most often continue to survive and are subjected to bullying, forcing them to quit.

Photo: Veronika Bystrykh

“Unfortunately, in our country, “mobbing,” that is, bullying in its various manifestations, is perceived as a common occurrence in work communities,” says Galina Tarasova. “Sometimes it’s even entertainment for management or employees who are bullying subordinates or colleagues. There is no serious attitude towards this problem, as in some Western countries, and is not expected. For official discrimination committed with the use of official position, even criminal liability is provided for in Art. 136 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. But in relation to labor relations, this is one of the so-called “dead” articles, for which judicial practice is either absent or minimal.

It is unrealistic to sue colleagues for bullying under the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. In this case, you can file claims for the protection of honor and dignity or statements to initiate a criminal case in connection with libel, try to bring criminal liability for battery, if any, for violation of privacy. You can act in a similar way if similar manifestations of bullying took place on the part of management.

It is possible to sue management under the Labor Code of the Russian Federation if the bullying was accompanied by illegal orders to deprive of any payments, illegal disciplinary sanctions, or led to illegal dismissal. That is, an unlawful order is appealed, and as part of a claim to cancel it, arguments and evidence of discrimination and bullying are presented. The degree of success of an appeal largely depends on the level of independence of a particular court, on the status of the defendant and whether he has administrative resources to influence the court. As a rule, the higher the administrative status of the employer, the less likely the employee is to have the claim satisfied.

The fact of bullying can be proven with audio recordings and video recordings, witness statements, written documents, for example, orders in which the employee was required to perform additional work not related to his job duties, made far-fetched claims and demanded explanations in connection with them.

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• Russian-language site about mobbing

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What types of mobbing are there?

When talking about what mobbing at work is, one cannot fail to mention its varieties. As in any other case of violence, there are several parties here - the aggressor, witnesses and the victim. Depending on which member of the team takes on a particular role, mobbing at work comes in two main types:

1. Horizontal. All participants in what is happening are equal in terms of powers and positions.
2. Vertical. The initiator of persecution is a person in a leadership position. Therefore, this type is also called bossing.

A hundred reasons for negativity

Olga Zhukova, LekOboz: Svetlana Valerievna, a situation where the work team for some reason dislikes one of the employees occurs quite often. This negatively affects not only the psychological climate in the team, but also the quality of work. But the person who suffers the most is the one to whom the dislike of his colleagues is directed. What can such an employee do to correct the situation?

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Svetlana Koroleva: First of all, you need to understand the reason for such negativity. The reasons for negative attitudes from colleagues can be external and internal. External reasons are usually clear and known: most often this is a specific work conflict that all employees know about. In this case, mobbing ends as soon as the conflict situation is completely resolved.

But most often, the negative attitude of colleagues is caused by internal reasons, which are quite difficult to identify. These could be some kind of communication barriers that people consciously or unconsciously erect around themselves and thereby contrast themselves with others. Sometimes the person himself is to blame for their creation, and sometimes these barriers are created by the team around him.

— How do such barriers arise?

– If for some reason a person is disliked in a team, then the problem always lies in him. Most often, this is a banal inability to communicate with other people, but it may also be that a person, for some internal reason, does not accept the traditions of the team or even rejects them. Many modern people are closed to communication: they are only concerned about their own problems, so they do not pay any attention to the interests of the team. In most cases, this provokes aggression, because the behavior of such a person when communicating with others is perceived as a threat. For example, to a simple question: “Are you free now?” - he answers aggressively: “So what of this?” On the part of the person himself, such a sharp response is just a defensive reaction, and those around him perceive it as a barrier to normal communication.

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Key reasons for mobbing

To figure out how to deal with mobbing at work, it’s worth finding its cause. Often, direct discussion of it with the initiator will disarm the latter and come to a peaceful agreement with him. For example, such a solution is quite feasible when the reasons are:

• aggression towards newcomers;
• fears of competition;
• long-standing grievances and inconsistencies;
• the desire to reduce activity in a person’s work so that others can also complete tasks more slowly.

But there are situations in which even a direct conversation will not yield anything. The reasons for their development lie in the personality itself. In this case, character traits become “fuel” for persecution, against which there is no point. Such situations include:

• envy;
• complexes and the desire to assert oneself at the expense of others;
• the desire to exert power and punish.

What are the consequences of bullying at work?

Conflict specialist Professor Davenport described the power of its impact very succinctly: “Although mobbing and bossing may seem quite harmless compared to rape or other manifestations of physical violence, the effect they have on the victim, especially if it lasts long enough, has such destructive force that some people are thinking about committing suicide."

How to resist bullying?

How to combat bullying at work? How not to miss its beginning? Is it worth trying to overcome the negative attitude against you or should you quit right away? Mobbing and bullying - the essence and methods of confrontation?

1. Maintain the ability to soberly assess the situation. Otherwise, the first attempts at pressure may be mistaken for a bad joke or just a bad period. Any repeated negative actions are terror that cannot be ignored!
2. Don't be led by your emotions during an attack. The initiators are really looking forward to your screams and tears. They will direct them in a favorable direction - to expose the person in an unfavorable light. They use it as a reason to doubt the victim’s professional suitability. But this does not mean that it is necessary to suppress emotions. Give them an outlet with loved ones or a psychologist, work through them and release them.
3. Use humor. The ability to turn what is happening into a joke is a powerful weapon in the fight against violation of personal boundaries. Observing unshakable optimism, often the initiators of persecution give up at the second stage of mobbing in a team. They are not interested in wasting energy on someone who does not give in to provocation. This confrontation tool is effective in the initial stages. If the attacks continue and intensify, it’s no longer time to laugh it off.
4. Leave the team. If the mobbing persists and continues after it has failed to make you angry, quit. There is hardly any point in asking management for help when there is open pressure. If they wanted to help you, it would have already been done. Probably, the director doesn’t care or he is at the same time as everyone else, which means he himself takes part in mobbing the staff.

Fighting methods

Let's now look at the main ways of fighting, because under no circumstances should we let the situation take its course, otherwise the situation will get worse and worse every day.

Requires endurance and calm

1. First of all, try to talk openly with the offenders, what happened and why exactly you did not suit them. Otherwise, you can endlessly change your place of work and find yourself in similar situations, instead of realizing whether the reason really lies in your personality and behavior pattern. And by talking openly, you will defuse the situation, perhaps the tyrants will let off steam and they will no longer need to torment you further.
2. If someone is aiming for your position, first determine for yourself whether this position is worth the effort. And if so, then give it your all, but prove that you are a worthy opponent and will not give up so easily.
3. Control yourself, because you may be deliberately provoked into hysteria or aggression in order to show that you are not a professional and do not deserve to be in such company. Use the techniques described in the article “Basic Breathing Techniques for Calming and Relieving Stress.” And don’t forget to give vent to your emotions, go in for sports, yoga, hit a punching bag, etc.
4. If you understand that the game is not worth the candle, feel free to write a letter of resignation. Few salaries will cover the damage caused, which will affect both the emotional state and health, relationships with loved ones and, in general, the quality of life.
5. To understand what is happening and understand what to do next, ask yourself a number of questions, just be frank, you need this, first of all: • If I don’t quit, what’s the worst that could happen? • Am I ready to look for a new job? • If yes, what needs to be done to achieve this? • Do I need help, both medical and psychological? • If I change positions but stay with the same company, will this help my situation?

More drastic ways

• To be on the safe side, get a video camera or voice recorder, then any insults, threats and illegal actions will be recorded, and you will be able to defend your rights.
• Learn to defend your boundaries, you shouldn’t allow yourself to be treated the way you want, you are a living person, and you may like some things, but others may be unacceptable. But how will others know about it if you remain silent? So be sure to confront, you are a person who deserves good treatment and respect. See the article “Defining a person’s personal space: boundaries and their violation.”
• If you just got a job, be friendly with everyone, and try not to get involved in conflicts between old employees, gossip and conspiracies. Take a closer look, study your colleagues to understand how to treat whom and what you can talk about and what it is better to remain silent about. Use the recommendations from the article about communication skills, thanks to them you will be able to win over others and also increase your level of charm.
• If possible, take advantage of connections, if any, or, as a last resort, try to create them. The world is a small place, and if you wish, you can discover those who have influence over the offenders.
• In cases where material or physical damage has been caused, do not be timid and boldly call the police; such situations cannot be left with impunity.

Effective prevention of mobbing

There are three factors, attention to which will serve as the best prevention of bullying in a team:

1. Corporate culture. It is important to hold regular team-building events. These are trips, trainings, holidays in honor of significant dates in the work of the enterprise or significant achievements. Comic competitions also work well to help employees relieve emotional stress.
2. Psychological climate. If it is not possible to hire a specialist, it is worth periodically involving him in monitoring the situation. Especially when new employees arrive.
3. Strict suppression of gossip and intrigue. It is difficult not to notice their appearance. They immediately affect employee productivity. It is important to conduct explanatory conversations in private with the parties to the conflict when the first signs appear. Here it is also advisable to involve an experienced psychologist or at least a specialist in human resources management. Details of the proceedings cannot be taken outside the office.

The key role in the prevention of mobbing is played by the personality and actions of the leader. Having taken care of these points in the company’s activities, he will not have to rack his brains over the question of how to resist mobbing at work.