Overcoming Mobbing

A Recovery Guide for Workplace Aggression and Bullying

Oxford UP, 2013

15 min read

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Mobbing is what happens when your co-workers covertly or overtly try to get rid of you. Learn how to overcome.

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Today, workplace aggression and abuse are increasingly common. This includes bullying, in which one or a few individuals – usually a boss – torment an employee. A more insidious attack is mobbing, in which a workplace group – often with the support of management – harass and terrorize an employee, to force him or her to leave or to create cause for dismissal. Mobbing can result in debilitating physical and emotional stress and illness, even suicide. Mental health professionals Maureen Duffy and Len Sperry detail mobbing, where and why it occurs, the effects on its victims and what companies can do to eliminate it. getAbstract recommends their insights to executives, HR professionals and to employees at all levels. The more executives and employees understand and recognize mobbing, the more they can do to eradicate it.

Summary

Let’s Ruin Dwayne’s Life, Get Him Fired and Run Him Out of Town!

Dwayne was a football coach with extensive experience, including coaching an overseas semipro team. He was a graduate of the rural southwestern high school that hired him to coach its varsity squad. That could have made him an insider at the school, but he was not. In small but significant ways, Dwayne differed from the people around him.

Specifically, Dwayne was an attractive man in great shape; his assistant coaches were fat. Dwayne came from a wealthy family; most people in the town did not. Dwayne was not from the same branch of Christianity as the majority of people in his area, and some local residents believed Dwayne’s overseas experience gave him “‘foreign’ ways.”

Many people in his little town regarded Dwayne as a suspicious “other.” Dwayne was in trouble even before his first day at work. Some of his assistant coaches thought they should have won the head-coaching job. They resented him from the start and began to undermine him right away.

The assistant coaches complained about Dwayne’s coaching style and play selections. They put Dwayne down behind his back. The backbiting and ...

About the Authors

Maureen Duffy is a family therapist and consultant on workplace and school bullying issues. Len Sperry teaches mental health counseling at Florida Atlantic University.

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P. J. 1 decade ago

OVERCOMING MOBBING IS AN IMPORTANT ISSUE TO TACKLE WITH AT THE PRESENT SCENARIO WHERE THERE IS GLOBALISATION. IT IS ONE ASPECT THAT CAN CAUSE AND LEAD TO A SOCIAL STIGMA. THE INCIDENCE OF THIS MOBBING IS MORE FOUND IN ORGANISATION WHERE THE MONOPOLISTIC FEATURES ARE MORE FOUND IN AN ORGANISATION OR PRIVATE FIRM. IT IS LESS FOUND IN ORGANISATIONS WHERE TRADE UNIONS OR WELFARE ORGANISATIONS EXIST.SIMPLY SPEAKING MOBBING IS TO BE CONDEMNED AND CARE TO BE TAKEN TO SUSTAIN AN AMICABLE RELATIONSHIP BY RE-LOOKING THE VICTIM AS A PROSPECTIVE EMLOYEE. A BAD ELEMENT ALSO CAN BE TRANSFORMED TO A GOOD ONE. EVEN IF THE VICTIM IS NOT APT IN APPLICATION OR CARELESS IN COMPLYING TO NORMS OR SERVICE CONDITIONS, STILL SCOPE CAN BE CREATED TO RECTIFY AND ENSURE A HEALTHY CONDITION FOR BOTH THE MOBBED AND THE ORGANISATION. MOBBING HAS BAD IMPACT ON THE FAMILY AND SOCIETY EVEN SO FAR THE VICTIM IS CONCERNRD. THE AUTHOR HAS ANALYSED WELL AND EXPLORED ALL POSSIBILITIES TO ERADICATE IT FROM ITS PREVALANCE.

Maureen Duffy and Len Sperry