How not to become a victim of mobbing

All of us have at least once in our lives faced a situation when, upon joining a new team, be it school, university or work, people start to corner us with their taunts, hostile looks and other nasty tricks. Here we are dealing with mobbing, that is, harassment on the part of other members of society. Most often the harassment is aimed at newcomers, but it cannot always be called hazing. It happens that the harassment starts in a young team among the same kind of newcomers. What should you do if you suddenly become a victim of mobbing?

What is mobbing:

Before we make sense of the current situation, let us define what mobbing actually is. This is a completely new word in the vocabulary of psychologists. Previously mobbing characterized only the behavior of animals. But recently this definition has been projected onto the world of people, whose deeds can often hardly be called human. So, mobbing is harassment directed at one person on the part of a group of colleagues with the aim of forcing them out of the workplace. Sound familiar? There is probably not a single person who has not in one way or another had something to do with this phenomenon. Someone was the instigator of mobbing, someone was its victim, and someone was simply an outside observer.

Psychologists divide mobbing into three categories: horizontal, vertical and sandwich mobbing. Horizontal mobbing takes place when the harassment comes from rank-and-file employees. With vertical mobbing an employee is subjected to harassment on the part of management. And the last, mixed type combines two kinds of harassment at once. Most often all these types of mobbing occur in large teams where there is no prospect of career growth and an employee can win the favor of management through denunciations and undermining others. After all, in the eyes of his superiors he will then seem like a knight. Although such knighthood is, of course, highly dubious here.

The causes of mobbing:

So why is one person or another subjected to mobbing? The answer is simple: the golden fish is too tough for office plankton to chew. It is precisely the desire to stand out from the gray mass that becomes the motivator for this crowd to subjugate the dissenter. Be like everyone else is the motto of many enterprises. And whoever disobeys this motto will become an outcast of the given society.

Let us try to make sense of this. Imagine a large enterprise with a workforce of several thousand people. What does it resemble? An anthill, where people mill about near their workplaces for 8-12 hours a day. Over time they turn into robots or zombies, capable only of following strictly established instructions. And then a newcomer appears, full of life, energy and fresh ideas. What will these zombies think? Right, it's either me or him. The newcomer represents a danger to these robot-like people. After all, they may be fired if he turns out to be better. In fear of losing their workplace, to which they have already grown attached and become part of an indivisible whole, the employees are ready for anything.

It all begins with the workers, embittered at the whole world, warily sizing up the daredevil. Then, if he poses no particular threat in terms of taking their place, he is accepted into their pack and they begin to subdue him until the newcomer's eyes are veiled with the haze of being zombified. But if the newcomer turns out to be of a completely different cast, then the zombie colleagues begin to nurse an ever greater hatred toward him, striving to force him out by any means in the shortest possible time.

A person who has been subjected to mobbing eventually comes to resemble a hunted little animal. It is paradoxical that many people try to stand up to this society so as not to show their weakness. Day after day they steadfastly endure all sorts of schemes of their colleagues, yet they do not leave their workplace. Each person has their own choice.

How not to become a victim of mobbing:

I have read a lot of psychological literature and advice. But everything is as individual as it is relative. If you have become a victim of mobbing and feel you have the strength to stand up to it, do so. If you are able to endure all the schemes of your enemies, endure them. If you believe that you deserve better, change your life. Do not try to change these people. Change yourself. Remember that every person, in the most difficult situation, always has a choice. Your choice. Whether to stay or to leave depends only on you. Life is not measured by the distance from home to work; it passes you by while you try to survive among jackals.

Do not try to be friendly with people to whom your smiles are alien. Their bitchiness has been cultivated over years under the weight of circumstances and the struggle for survival. Do not try to make excuses, flatter or attack in return. Just be natural. No cure has yet been invented for this plague. No antidote. There is a danger of becoming a victim of mobbing or a provocateur yourself. The best remedy is to leave these zombies to devour one another. Never be afraid to leave something behind. Believe in your own strength and abilities. Something better will always come to take its place, something you deserve!