If at least once in your life you have been subjected to psychological pressure from your boss or colleagues, know that mobbing has been initiated against you. What are its causes, and how to protect yourself from it? Read on.
Mobbing (from the English mob - crowd) is a newfangled word, but the phenomenon that it denotes is as old as the world. This is the name for a form of psychological pressure on an employee from the management of a company or an entire team. The purpose of this action is not just to humiliate the victim, but to achieve his dismissal.
If no one has ever been against you, then you are very lucky. Although in Ukraine, every second Ukrainian has encountered “bullying” at work. What to do when hostility and hostility from colleagues has turned into daily emotional or physical terror?
Work.ua figured out the types and reasons for mobbing and found tools to protect against it.
How to identify bullying
Psychotherapist Anna Riznichenko
Anna Riznichenko names the following distinctive features of bullying.
- Inequality
Most often, aggression is shown by a person who is higher in rank than his victim. This can be either a professional difference - a manager and a subordinate, a junior specialist and a senior specialist, or a psychophysical difference - strong versus weak. - Humiliation of dignity
For the aggressor, your professional qualities do not matter at all, because bullying is aimed primarily at humiliating human dignity. You can be a great professional and still be bullied. - Systematicity
Conflicts happen between people from time to time - they quarreled, didn’t share something, separated, and then made up. Bullying is characterized by systematic and regular aggressive influence on another person. - Forming a coalition
Very often, the aggressor attracts a kind of retinue to his side - people who will support the persecution or spread gossip against the victim.
Stages of mobbing development
If children's bullying does not particularly need a reason, then mobbing does not arise spontaneously. Its formation and development goes through 5 stages:
- Prerequisites. As a rule, this is some kind of unresolved and protracted conflict, contradiction, emotional tension due to an unfavorable psychological climate in the team.
- Initial phase. Search for a “scapegoat”, the culprit of troubles. After finding the culprit, aggressive attacks and ridicule in his direction follow. The victim herself experiences her first emotional breakdowns, which only fuels psychological violence.
- Active phase. Bullying, reproaches, ridicule become systematic, do not depend on the actions of the victim, and are tied to the object itself, and not to situations. The victim's chronic diseases worsen, the first signs of serious mental disorders appear, and a feeling of being hunted down.
- Social isolation. The employee is deprived of the opportunity to participate in the official and unofficial life of the team.
- Dismissal. The victim of mobbing is either asked to leave the workplace, or the person himself decides to quit in order to preserve his physical and psychological health.
How bullying occurs at work
Anna Riznichenko identifies 2 reasons for the occurrence of bullying.
Features of the team
Sometimes the very system within a company allows bullying to occur. This happens in teams where there is no corporate culture, but there is tension within the community. A weak object is selected, onto which this tension is released, and the persecution begins.
Bullying often occurs in companies headed by psychopathic leaders for whom aggression and violence are normal. They can, by their own example, show a model of incorrect behavior: make fun of an employee, scold him in front of his colleagues. An analogy can be made with a family - if parents swear, offend the weak, and do not wash their hands before eating, then the children will copy this model of behavior. Also in companies.
Personality characteristics of the aggressor himself
In psychology, a psychopathic personality type is distinguished; this is a person who is an aggressor by nature. He will always try to be on top and show who is boss in the pack. Sometimes this is a person who is jealous, and his envy is aimed at destroying another person. If the team is healthy, and HR and managers monitor the situation inside, it is easy to identify such a toxic person, have an appropriate conversation with him or fire him.
Causes
The object of envy of the mobber and his minions can be anything: expensive outfits, youth, professional success, a new position, the marital status of the victim, the loyal attitude of management towards her.
The instigators of bullying may harass a colleague out of idleness. This way they get rid of negative emotions and enjoy the process itself.
Competition in the workplace, high staff turnover, and the desire for revenge are also common reasons. In this way, mobbers make their way to promotion, satisfy unsatisfied ambitions, or achieve the dismissal of an employee with whom they once had a conflict.
Forms of office bullying
Business coach and facilitator Lyudmila Melnik
Lyudmila Melnik identifies two types of office bullying: mobbing (bullying among colleagues) and bullying (when a manager bullies a subordinate).
Aggressive stalking can take the following forms.
1. Ignoring
Colleague or group of colleagues:
- do not respond to greetings or questions;
- are not invited to general events/gatherings/discussions;
- fall silent when the victim appears;
- silently ignore an opinion or statement;
- interrupt;
- negative comments in the spirit of “What nonsense”, “It would be better to remain silent.”
2. Constant unreasoned criticism
3. Invasion of personal space
The aggressor touches the victim without consent, pats him, hugs him, or manages personal belongings or things on his desk.
4. Ridicule of physical characteristics, appearance, clothing, actions.
5. Discussion of personal life, nationality, gender, religious affiliation.
6. Attribution of non-existent opinions and statements.
7. Raising your voice.
8. Reducing or ignoring the significance of the victim's knowledge, work and achievements.
Disinformation and concealment of information
I got a job at a great company - I always dreamed of working in the editorial department of a large publication. But my mentor did not allow me to do practically anything. As a result, 30% of office time was spent on solving work problems. The remaining 70% I was left to my own devices. At the end of the year, it turned out that I was entrusted with preparing a corporate event, and my mentor kept silent about it. I lasted a year to get internship and left. — Alena, editor
In this case, we advise you to contact your superiors directly for instructions. At the same time, write down what you were assigned, what is in development and what you have already done.
Suggest using kanban - then all important tasks will be visible.
Bullying at work: how to resist if you are a victim
When you see aggression directed towards you, Anna Riznichenko advises not to remain silent and defend your boundaries: “At moments when someone shows aggression towards us, we usually freeze and hold our breath. The aggressor instantly reads this at the level of instincts and feels his victory. He is interested in when the victim reacts. One of the psychological techniques that you can use to resist is to continue to breathe and look the person straight in the eyes.”
In addition, Anna advises asking for help from your manager or HR manager. If they cannot influence the situation or you feel that the entire company team is aggressive, you should leave, because your health is more valuable.
Lyudmila Melnik has prepared a whole arsenal of methods that will help resist bullying.
- Ignore the attack. The response - tears, resentment, aggression - only provokes. If they don't get what they expect, attackers may stop trying. There is no point in action that does not bring results.
- Expose the attackers. Say: “Continue further. It's funny to me to watch you try. What you are doing is called mobbing/bullying. I know how it's done and what you're trying to achieve. Tell?"
- Use the Psychological Aikido technique. For example, respond to criticism like this: “You are absolutely right! Moreover, I am actually much worse than what you are saying about me here. I really can’t imagine how you can still tolerate me. You are the most patient of all the colleagues I have ever worked with. Thank you for that!".
- Tell your manager about the situation. If the previous methods do not work, find another team where you will not be bullied.
Consequences of mobbing
As a result of bullying, a person’s mental and physical condition gradually deteriorates. Mobbing can force a person to leave even a favorite job. Dismissal and psychological trauma are the consequences of mobbing. In addition, an inferiority complex is formed, self-esteem suffers, psychosomatic diseases develop, unmotivated aggression, nervous breakdowns, and suicidal tendencies occur.
In addition, there are:
- sleep problems;
- irritability;
- depression;
- panic attacks;
- heart attack;
- cognitive impairment, such as decreased concentration.
The consequences depend on the duration, strength of mobbing and the psychological stability (stress tolerance) of the victim. If a person tries to endure violence, then after some time the body itself finds a way out - long sick leave.
Over time, a person either quits himself or is fired, as productivity and professionalism noticeably drop. Sometimes a person is no longer able to continue working in his specialty, even in a new place. Moreover, most often the victim himself is blamed for all troubles. Illnesses after dismissal tend to worsen, even progressing to post-traumatic stress syndrome.
Naturally, family relationships also suffer. The victim has no time and energy left for anything other than resisting the mobbing and experiencing it.
What to do if you are a witness to mobbing or bullying
People in the team do not want to become black sheep, they are afraid of the condemnation of a stronger colleague and succumb to his influence. Therefore, first of all, it is important not to fall under the influence of the aggressor and not become part of his retinue.
Even one person who comes to the victim’s defense can radically change the situation - at least deprive the aggressor of support. To do this, Lyudmila Melnik advises using the following phrases:
- “Yes, I'm your friend. Tell me what happened to you... Maybe I can help you improve your relationship.”
- “Yes, I'm your friend. I'm sorry that you have a bad relationship with... But I have a good relationship with him. And I will continue to communicate with him."
- “I will first figure out who is beating whom and for what, and then I will make a decision on what to do about it.”
- “I think such actions are not environmentally friendly. These are my values and my position.”
You also need to contact your manager or HR and explain, using specific facts, what you personally saw.
Kinds
Let's immediately differentiate the concepts. Banal squabbles that happen in almost every team are not mobbing. If you were once scolded by your boss for not sending an important letter, then you are paying for your own irresponsibility. When a colleague makes a remark that you are interfering with your work by talking too loudly on the phone about personal matters, this is an attempt to stop your tactlessness.
But if every working day begins with aggression, criticism, open insults, nagging, damage to your or office property and other meanness on the part of your manager or co-workers, then there is reason to worry - mobbing has been initiated against you. It can be horizontal (pressure comes from employees); vertical (from management); mixed.
How to respond to bullying as a manager or HR person
Company management must maintain a healthy atmosphere in the team. This function can be delegated to HR managers or handled independently in the event of bullying.
HR BP IT company Boosta Yarina Odnorig
Yarina Odnorig is confident that the psychological climate in the team directly affects the achievement of the goals of the entire company. Therefore, it is important for the HR manager, as the person who is closest to the team, to quickly respond to such situations.
If you find out about bullying of one of your employees, first of all find out all the details and circumstances in order to rely only on reliable facts. It is worth having a one-on-one conversation with the victim of bullying, during which you ask a number of questions:
- what exactly happened;
- under what circumstances;
- When;
- who was present;
- Has this happened before, and if so, how often.
“Given the sensitivity of the topic, the conversation should be conducted very carefully: focus on the person’s condition, convey to him a sense of confidence in his confidentiality and make it clear that the situation will definitely be resolved,” advises Yarina.
Next, it is advisable to communicate with other team members and evaluate the atmosphere that reigns in the team. Use indirect questions to see if anyone else has noticed bullying.
Having a complete picture, you need to report this situation to the bully manager. And together with the manager, have a critical conversation, during which you explain the essence of the problem - without accusations, simply stating a fact. It must be clearly shown that such behavior is unacceptable in the company, it is completely contrary to corporate values, and if this continues, the next step will be dismissal. You must understand that you will really have to say goodbye to the person if positive changes do not occur. Critical conversation is the final warning.
“This scheme should work both if the aggressor is an ordinary employee and if he is in a managerial position. Human rights are the same for everyone without exception, and we cannot turn a blind eye to their violation. The same applies to corporate rules and norms of conduct. If the aggressors are a group of people, you need to identify their informal leader and work with him. By influencing the leader, you will automatically have influence on other group members,” recommends Yarina.
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 took this position in 2022 on the recommendation of a 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 2022, 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 2022. 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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“The advice to ‘don’t stand out’ is not advice at all.” Bullying at school: who is to blame?
Card file: School bullying: what to do?
Causing harm to health - bullying
Bullying is a more severe form of mobbing. The victim experiences real psychological terror and emotional pressure. In some cases may cause physical harm
Sometimes people who are bullied reach a mentally unstable state and an inadequate perception of reality. This is how suicides or mass shootings happen (for example, in educational institutions).
If you feel that mobbing at work has become downright aggressive, contact your superiors. Or urgently change your job. Remember - health is most important.
“There are too many of you in this office.”
It is easiest to bully young, inexperienced colleagues who cannot fight back largely due to lack of confidence in their abilities. According to this principle, Elena Londar, now an HR expert at HeadHunter, and 15 years ago, a 24-year-old head of the HR department of one of the IT companies, became a victim of bullying. Shortly after her appointment, the team showed her an email sent to all 400 employees of the company, excluding her, which stated that she had “unknown how she got her position.” “It was peppered with fantasies of an envious person about my turbulent past, forecasts of an unenviable future and calls to ignore me as a top manager, or better yet to sabotage the performance of my duties so that I would be fired altogether for my inability to work with staff,” says Londar. The ill-wishers even created a thread on the forum, where for another week they “actively dwelt on the details of the abuser’s fantasies.”
Elena turned to the general director: he advised to ignore what was happening and asked the IT department to track down the instigator and block access to the forum from work computers. “After a couple of months, the discussion died down, but it seemed to me that all this time I went to work without clothes. This story gave me several gray hairs, sleepless nights and a lot of experience,” Londar sums up.
“They created a thread about me on the forum, where for another week they actively talked about the details of the abuser’s fantasies.”
The real reason for bullying is one - the psychological problems of the person who is the source of the bullying, says psychologist and psychotherapist Vera Yanysheva. The imaginary reasons that the aggressor uses to justify his behavior can be very different: from accusations of unprofessionalism of the target of bullying to nitpicking about appearance. One of the most common is fat shaming (from the English fat - “fat” and to shame - “shame”). These are actions or statements that ridicule a person for being overweight.
Igor encountered bullying when the term itself did not yet exist - in 1996-1999, while working at Donetsk Tarny, he says.
Another anonymous Forbes interviewee had notes placed on his desk with the text “there are too many of you in this office,” and the managing partner of one of the Moscow marketing agencies constantly received reproaches for being excessively obese from a subordinate. “I gained weight by the fall, and that’s how it started. It seems harmless, but it’s not pleasant,” he says. “Unfortunately, I had to fire this person: he did not compromise, and as the owner of the company, I don’t have time for a showdown.” However, after experiencing bullying, the hero joined the gym and lost 7 kg in a few months.
“Breastfeeding is a bullet in the head of a career”: what problems do young mothers face at work?
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Block 4. Mobbing. How do top bosses behave?
TARGETS should understand that a considerable number of senior managers (not mobbers) myopically believe that team members will “quarrel and make peace” themselves, by analogy with children from kindergarten. But adults are not children at all and are capable of being very consistent and organized when it comes to the fight against “strangers” - TARGETS.
But why do bosses think this way? Are they really that stupid?
Not at all!
The fact is that top managers are extremely busy and are simply not ready to waste their time immersing themselves in this “kindergarten”. The arrogance of bosses contributes to this attitude. These are people with very high self-esteem, sometimes so much so that for them some ordinary employee is a “savage from Polynesia.” In order to save their resources, top managers either delegate the consideration and resolution of the mobbing situation to the heads of the personnel service, heads of departments, or the employees themselves to sort it out among themselves, simply by shouting at everyone at the meeting with phrases like:
- Well, that's enough already, we've played enough! Stop this, otherwise I will punish everyone!
It is clear that such a “clumsy” way of managing processes in teams does not bring results.
Mobbing, like a virus, transforms, adapts and continues its life!
Adviсe
- Realize that bullying is rarely directed at charming people, so try to be friendly to everyone, but don't grovel or be a hypocrite.
- Once you find yourself in a new team, try to communicate with everyone on the same level, be polite, do not get involved in internal squabbles, and do not draw attention to yourself with unusual behavior.
- Find a place for yourself that allows you to maintain your individuality and at the same time not stand out from the general team.
- Do not humiliate your colleagues, praise them, but do not overdo it, so that it does not smack of hypocrisy.
- Do not gossip or spread information you hear in a group.
- If someone provokes you into aggression, talk to him, find out what he wants to achieve by this. Learn not to react to offensive words.
- Adhere to the traditions accepted in the company, do not refuse to attend corporate events.
- Treat your boss with respect. Always perform your job duties conscientiously.
- If objective shortcomings in your person are to blame, try to change for the better.
- To be on the safe side, get a voice recorder or video camera so that all insults, illegal actions and threats from your colleagues are captured.
- Remember that you are a living person, and no one has the right to oppress you.
- Always resist, do not bow to the aggressor, you deserve respect.
- If any kind of damage is caused to you, there is no need to be timid, go straight to the police.
