The 6 types of workplace harassment (mobbing): how to avoid it?

It is estimated that we spend about a third of our lives at work. That is why it is essential that during this time we feel comfortable and free to carry out our tasks in a satisfactory and dynamic way. People who enjoy well-being at work are those who manage to carry out their respective jobs in contexts where they feel recognized for their profession, with all the repercussions this has on their personal, family and Social.

All companies should invest efforts so that their employees feel good in the exercise of their work, so that the work environment allows to reconcile well-being and health with the requirements of each profession.

Unfortunately, well-being at work is not a reality for many people. Many employees suffer from what is known as mobbing or workplace harassment, a phenomenon more common than it might seem and with devastating effects on the victim who suffers it. In this article we are going to comment on what workplace harassment is and what types of mobbing exist.

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What is mobbing?

Mobbing or workplace harassment is defined as a situation in which a worker or group of workers they exercise a series of harmful actions at a psychological level towards another person in the workplacesystematically and persistently over time.

This form of harassment affects women and men equally. Added to this, it can occur in various directions within the work hierarchy. On the one hand, we can find cases of horizontal harassment, that which occurs between equals. On the other hand, there can also be vertical harassment, either ascending (from the employees to their superior) or descending (from the boss to his employees).

In some cases, stalkers may carry out their violent acts in the form of gaslighting, a kind of subtle but devastating abuse by which the victim is convinced that what happens is his fault hers. In this way, a tense and confusing environment is built in which the affected worker is paralyzed and overwhelmed by insecurity and fear, which in turn makes it difficult for this situation to be denounced. Thus, a spiral is formed in which the victim is helpless and unable to defend himself.

In any case, workplace harassment constitutes a form of unjustified psychological violence, which through negative and hostile acts has a huge impact on the performance and mental health of the victim. Mobbing can cause serious problems of anxiety, depression, demotivation and great damage to the reputation of the harassed worker, leading in the most serious cases to suicide.

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Causes of bullying

Contrary to what it may seem, mobbing is a form of harassment that does not usually have its origin in causes related to the work itself, but to the personal relationships that are forged in the field labor. There are certain variables that favor the appearance of mobbing in an organization.

• The organization of work: People who experience workplace bullying are often overworked employees. Progressively, they are assigned an increasingly overwhelming amount of work at a quantitative and qualitative level, which causes increasing stress. This scenario of tension becomes the ideal context for conflicts to appear and bullying towards the overwhelmed person is triggered.

• leadership type: Not all bosses perform leadership adequately. The ideal is a democratic type of leadership, in which the superior tries to involve his employees in the decision-making processes by establishing fluid communication with them. However, there are many who take advantage of their power to exercise authoritarian leadership, which can contribute to generating tensions by not taking into account the opinions and needs of their employees. This can create tensions and conflicts that facilitate the development of a workplace harassment situation.

• Worker Growth: It is known that workplace bullying is more likely in organizations where employees perform monotonous and repetitive tasks. When workers do not have prospects for growth or evolution in their company, feelings of frustration are more likely to appear. This can often cause employees to channel their discomfort towards other colleagues, which can lead to a mobbing situation.

What kinds of mobbing exist?

The truth is that we have talked about workplace bullying in a generic way, but we can differentiate between different types. In this way, we can classify it according to two criteria. On the one hand, according to the hierarchical position of the person who exercises it, and secondly, according to its purpose.

1. Types of mobbing according to hierarchical position

As we discussed earlier, workplace bullying can occur in different directions within an organization. According to this, we can find different types of mobbing.

1.1. horizontal mobbing

In this case, the bully is on the same level as his victim. The relationship between the two is that of co-workers, so the person who harasses usually has numerous opportunities to harm that person. The reasons behind this form of mobbing can be very varied, although among them can be found the competitiveness, envy, enmity, frustration, conflicts and differences with the victim, etc.

1.2. vertical mobbing

This type of bullying occurs when the victim and the harasser are at different levels within the company hierarchy, so that one is in a higher or lower position with respect to the other. This allows us to discriminate between two types of vertical mobbing:

• Upward Vertical Mobbing:

This form of harassment occurs when the victim is in a higher rank than the harasser. This type of mobbing is the one that occurs when employees attack and seek to harm their superior.

• Downward vertical mobbing (bossing):

This form of harassment, also known as bossing, is quite typical. In it, the boss or superior is the one who harasses his employees. In some cases, bosses may harass their subordinates not only for personal reasons, but also for business reasons, such as wanting that employee to walk away from the company on their own business.

2. Types of mobbing according to its purpose

Next, we are going to comment on the different types of workplace harassment that can be found depending on the purpose pursued.

2.1. strategic bullying

This form of workplace harassment is descending, since it seeks to harass an employee in order to he leaves the job without the need to fire him. This dastardly strategy is more common than it seems, as it allows organizations to avoid paying compensation for unfair dismissal.

2.2. Management or management mobbing

This form of harassment is exercised, as its name suggests, by the company's own management. The reasons that can drive harassment towards an employee can be many, although the ultimate goal is to get rid of him or get the most out of his dedication and productivity. In this way, this top-down type of harassment allows the creation of situations of authentic labor exploitation, achieving higher levels of productivity by instilling fear in the workers. Through threats of dismissal and blackmail, the victim may feel very pressured and unable to act freely in the workplace.

23. perverse mobbing

This form of bullying is so named because has nothing to do with business strategies. In this case, the main engine is the stalker's own personality, which is characterized by being a manipulative person capable of using others at will. In these cases, the harassment can occur in all directions, although it most often occurs horizontally.

This type of mobbing is one of the most complex to detect, since the harasser is able to deceive the environment and carry out the harassment discreetly and without witnesses involved. The solution to this problem would be to expel the person from the company or re-educate her so that she understands that her attitude is inadmissible.

2.4. disciplinary bullying

This type of harassment is used as a method to discipline employees. Through threats of all kinds, the more or less explicit message is transmitted that one should not act contrary to superiors. All this builds a climate based on the culture of silence, in which abuse is witnessed psychological to other people with the warning that this will happen to oneself if he acts out of bounds marked.

This form of mobbing can be carried out towards the entire company staff in general, but also towards some employees in particular, especially those who have resorted to low or who know the darkest secrets and ins and outs of the company, in order to keep their be quiet.

Conclusions

In this article we have talked about workplace harassment or mobbing, a type of psychological violence that a person exerts towards another in the work environment, which can seriously affect the well-being of the victim.