The term, “mobbing”, is part of sociological urban language. Mobbing occurs in small, specialized venues, particularly a workplace. Mobbing has the effect of curtailing morale and productivity. It is important to know how to identify mobbing. It is even more important to know what to do to protect oneself from mobbing.
What is mobbing?
Mobbing is another term for bullying. It occurs when a group of individuals decide to band together to bully another individual. This term is used among fellow employees or in social media groups online.
The incidences of mobbing occurs in various organizations, religious groups, families and schools. In most cases, mobbing is founded upon the element of peer to peer cronyism.
How to identify mobbing
The function of mobbing among peer groups is to use various means of attack to enforce fear in their target or, in the workplace, to cause the individual to be removed from their job. These means of attack include:
- Discrediting
- Public humiliation
- Group intimidation
- Vicious rumors
- Innuendo
- Isolation
However, mobbing may also include other racist, biased, nonsexual, non racial and malicious attacks toward the mobbing victim.
In online social media, mobbing may also be referred to as “cyber bullying”. Thus, the major impetus of mobbing is to exert group power and control over their target.
What can you do about mobbing?
When a mobbing group feels their target is in opposition to their group mindset or ideology, the group seeks to control the object of their perceived opposition.
It is important to remember the mobbing group has a narrow scope of intellect. With this in mind, the target of mobbing has many options to avoid becoming a victim of mobbing.
For adults experiencing mobbing in the workplace, the status of the mobbing group and the duration of the mobbing determines whether company support is available. For children and teens, parents, teachers and family doctor may provide a measure of guidance and protection.