Mobbing: what is it?

According to Article 94 of the Labor Code:

Mobbing means actions or behaviors concerning an employee, or directed against an employee, consisting of persistent and long-term harassment or intimidation of an employee, resulting in their diminished professional self-esteem, causing or aimed at humiliating or ridiculing the employee, isolating them or eliminating them from a team of co-workers.

However, not all conflicts at work and lack of sympathy among team colleagues are equivalent to the phenomenon of mobbing. The Labor Code clearly specifies that harassment must be long-term and persistent. It should be emphasized that it is the responsibility of the aggrieved persons to prove the unlawfulness of the act and the guilt of the persons abusing others. An employee who is abused by a superior often remains silent for fear of being dismissed from work. This is not the only reason. Workplace mobbing will be perceived differently by those who are directly affected by it and differently by co-workers/observers standing on the sidelines.

Effects of mobbing — consequences for the employer and the mobbing person?

It is worth emphasizing that the employer is always responsible for the use of mobbing in the company environment. It is the employer’s obligation to counteract this phenomenon, and for neglect in this matter, they face a fine or payment of compensation to the victim.

The business owner has the right to punish the mobber:

• with disciplinary dismissal from work, material liability;
• with loss of bonuses, salary reduction, withdrawal of benefits;
• with transfer to another position, withdrawal of official privileges.

Despite the fact that the employer is responsible for mobbing in the company (even for one they did not know about), the mobbing person also bears consequences. The consequences of mobbing are not only a reduction in salary or dismissal from work. In extreme cases, mobbing may bear the hallmarks of a crime prosecuted under the provisions of the Criminal Code.

How to recognize workplace mobbing?

Two basic factors will help us in assessing the recognition of the phenomenon of mobbing:

• Persistence – that is, behavior stretched over time, constantly repeated and inevitable (from the victim’s point of view), which is onerous and continuous.
• Long-term duration – for the assessment of this factor, the moment of occurrence of the effects of mobbing is important – the actions should last long enough to cause, for example, diminished self-esteem in the employee.

Both factors result from the assessment of events and should occur simultaneously.

Each situation bearing the hallmarks of workplace mobbing should be approached individually and focus on the circumstances. Despite the fact that even a one-time behavior towards an employee may cause effects typical for mobbing, however, in order to speak of mobbing, the actions of the mobbing person must be intensified so that the impact on the psyche is long-term.

Types of mobbing

Some believe that only lower-level employees fall victim to workplace mobbing. However, it is not worth linking the phenomenon of mobbing only with professional position. Such situations occur on many levels, and violations of the principles of equal treatment in employment – should be sought on each side.

Basic types of mobbing:

1. vertical mobbing (diagonal, descending A) – occurs when the mobbing person is the victim’s direct superior;
2. vertical mobbing (diagonal, descending B) – mobbing is used by the company president himself and uses his power to harass employees in lower positions;
3. vertical mobbing (diagonal, ascending) – concerns situations where a subordinate or group of subordinates abuse their direct or main superior.
4. simple mobbing – is the harassment of co-workers at the same level of the employee hierarchy. It most often occurs in one team, but from time to time extends to different positions.

Other types of mobbing

Specifying various manifestations of mobbing due to the employee hierarchy is not sufficient. It is also important to recognize one of the most dangerous types of this phenomenon. It is worth familiarizing yourself with the division of this phenomenon due to visibility. In this case, we can distinguish two basic types of psychological mobbing.

Direct mobbing – direct mobbing consists of personally harassing the victim face to face. The mobbing person does not hide their intentions at all, making it clear that they consider a given employee to be inferior. All forms of humiliation often take place in front of other co-workers. Being humiliated at work by a co-worker or superior in this way is much easier to prove. All manifestations of such abuse are visible. In this situation, it is worth trying to persuade co-workers/observers to confirm the mobbing victim’s version of events.

Indirect mobbing – indirect mobbing is unfortunately often overlooked when resolving mobbing cases. It is a dangerous form of workplace abuse due to its hidden form. It consists of acting behind the back of a completely unaware victim who cannot react early enough because they have no idea about the situation. Above all, it is spreading rumors, snitching, inducing exclusion of the victim, and other deliberate actions aimed at making work unpleasant. The mobbing person targets a certain person without giving any indication that something is wrong. At the same time, they may spread rumors about them and perform other actions aimed at humiliating the victim professionally among co-workers.

Phases of mobbing

Psychological harassment at work usually builds up gradually, heading towards a critical point. Division into individual phases of mobbing will help to react faster when one notices that something bad is happening in the immediate environment. The ability to react quickly is the most effective action in the fight against manifestations of mobbing at work. Thanks to the immediate resolution of the problem, it is possible to prevent a permanent deterioration of the atmosphere in the company and to minimize the consequences of the conflict for the person being harassed by the mobbing person.

Early phase of mobbing

The early phase is the transformation of an ordinary conflict into a desire to destroy another person. It should be emphasized that preventing mobbing is much more difficult than fighting an existing phenomenon. The early phase of mobbing may be the result of a poorly ended conflict, jealousy, or fear for one’s position. The first signs to pay attention to are reluctance to talk, unpleasant remarks, groundless pointing out of mistakes, and omitting the victim in the integration of the rest of the team, disinformation.

The basic problem with the early phase of workplace mobbing is the difficulty in distinguishing it from ordinary dislike. Nevertheless, it is the best time for conversation and an attempt to resolve the conflict amicably.

Phase of conflict escalation

Conflict escalation is the moment when jabs towards the victim begin to be passed on to other company co-workers. The mobbing person widely comments on flaws, alleges incompetence, ridicules, or, for example, ostentatiously arranges everyone for a meeting after work, except for the victim. During the phase of conflict escalation, the mobbing victim begins to feel stress, engages in an unequal fight against accusations, and begins to have doubts about their own worth. The mobbing victim often encounters indifference from other company employees who, wanting to work in peace, do not take the risk associated with being a new target of the abuser. It should be kept in mind that such behaviors can lead to mental health problems for the mobbing victim and spoil the good atmosphere in the workplace. Conflict escalation is also the last moment when fighting mobbing is relatively simple.

Advanced phase of workplace mobbing

This is a very dangerous situation that no employee or superior should allow to happen. The person subjected to mobbing is the official “scapegoat” in the company, and the person behind it carries out actions aimed at the victim with impunity. The constantly humiliated mobbing victim is considered an incompetent employee who cannot perform the simplest task.

Through the loss of self-esteem, the humiliated employee begins to believe that everything others say about them is true. Psychological mobbing in its worst form can lead to the victim’s nervous breakdown and serious health problems.

Final phase of mobbing

The culmination of the conflict is a phase that occurs extremely rarely as a result of the extraordinary passivity of other people in the company. In extreme cases, mobbing can manifest itself as sexual harassment, physical violence, creating evidence suggesting the uselessness or stupidity of the victim. It happens that harassment at work by a superior or co-worker transfers from professional life to private life. Long-term abuse of someone in such a ruthless manner can lead to serious psychological problems. Some mobbing victims may struggle with the consequences of such actions for the rest of their lives.

Methods of action used by mobbers:

– Isolation – This is one of the most effective and at the same time ruthless tactics used by mobbers. Pushing co-workers to the sidelines is called social ostracism. It consists of persuading other people to purposely ignore an employee who is to feel unwanted and unnecessary as part of the team.

– Hindering work performance – The phenomenon is often interpreted as ordinary distrust or aversion to an employee. However, long-term hindering of work performance, which aims to lead to the dismissal of a co-worker, is another way of workplace mobbing. Examples include, among others, keeping away from valuable information and constant reporting of failures, deliberately misleading during training, assigning duties against competences.

– Humiliation and ridicule – Very often this tactic is used by people who are afraid for their position and want to exclude potential competition. Mobbers use literally every situation for public criticism or ridicule of an employee, while not giving them the opportunity to defend themselves. In addition, they try to mask all the achievements of the victim, focusing all the attention of the environment on their flaws. They also try to assign them tasks below their competence, convincing that they cannot cope even with that, which has an impact on lowering the self-esteem of the mobbing victim.

How to document mobbing?

Unfortunately, proving mobbing lies with the employee affected by harassment. A conversation with the employer, labor inspection, or court should be supported by documented examples of mobbing. Collecting evidence is not a simple task, especially when it requires recording or eavesdropping on the mobber. It is worth emphasizing that recording an employer without their knowledge is a debatable issue. Formally, eavesdropping on someone at work without their consent is illegal. In practice, some courts have admitted voice recordings of mobbing persons as evidence in cases brought against them.

Nevertheless, mobbing often involves, for example, cutting wages, threats, frequent overtime, and these actions are much easier to document. An important issue is also archiving conversations on private and business communicators. Thanks to this, you can obtain irrefutable evidence of harassment. Convincing other witnesses of mobbing to testify in your favor in court or to confirm your words at a meeting with a superior is another way to obtain additional evidence.

How to protect against mobbing?

It should be emphasized that dialogue is the best way to resolve all conflicts. When you notice the first symptoms of mobbing, it is worth trying to talk to the perpetrator of these actions. In this way, you make it clear that you are perfectly aware of what is happening. In this way, first of all, you can scare the mobber, who did not expect a direct confrontation. In case dialogue with the mobber does not bring results, a direct conversation with the supervisor or company president may be helpful. Here it should be emphasized that according to labor law, mobbing should be combated in particular by the employer. In this situation, signaling the problem should trigger a series of actions aimed at drawing consequences for the mobbing person.

In case the perpetrator of mobbing is a superior/president, it is worth talking to other team co-workers and creating a common front against the dishonest employer. Acting in a group makes you feel the support of other people affected by the problem. To ensure that the perpetrator of mobbing will be punished, you should contact institutions and social organizations that help in the fight against unfair treatment of employees. In some cases, a lawsuit for mobbing can also be replaced by criminal proceedings.

Mobbing – Criminal Code

Polish criminal law does not treat mobbing in the same categories as the Labor Code. This does not mean, however, that violating employee rights cannot become a crime that will be judged based on the Criminal Code. In this case, one can give an example of a one-time threat to an employee. In this situation, we cannot speak of long-term harassment, therefore the aggrieved person can rely on the provisions contained in Article 218 of the Criminal Code:

Whoever, performing activities in matters of labor law and social insurance, maliciously or persistently violates the rights of an employee resulting from an employment relationship, or social insurance, shall be subject to a fine, the penalty of restriction of liberty or deprivation of liberty for up to 2 years.

In this case, the provisions refer only to employers or persons acting on their behalf. The purpose of the perpetrator of such a crime is to humiliate, harm, or cause unpleasantness to the employee.

Workplace mobbing – where to report?

Every employee, regardless of whether they have fallen victim to mobbing or are a witness, should know where to report mobbing. A person who has encountered the problem of harassment can inform the trade unions operating in the company or file a notification to the National Labor Inspectorate. Mobbing that has been reported in writing can constitute the basis for conducting an inspection of the entire company. A company that ignores signals regarding mobbing can be fined, as well as forced to introduce necessary changes aimed at solving the problem of harassment in the workplace. In very difficult cases, you can send a letter to the Ombudsman or go to the police, submitting a notification of suspicion of committing a crime.

Compensation for mobbing – how to receive it?

A victim of mobbing who has decided to oppose harassment in the workplace can count on more than just consequences drawn in relation to the perpetrator of mobbing. Compensation for mobbing is due to every employee who has terminated their employment contract in connection with mobbing. For this to happen, you need to ensure that the contract is terminated in writing, and the reason for ending the employment relationship is behavior bearing the hallmarks of mobbing. In this situation, the employee is entitled to compensation, which cannot be lower than the minimum wage for work in a given calendar year (the upper limit has not been specified by regulations).

The second situation in which one can get compensation for mobbing is showing that the phenomenon of long-term harassment in the workplace has led to a disorder of mental or physical health. Then, medical documentation should be presented.