The term “bullying/mobbing” was introduced in the late 1980s by the Swedish industrial psychologist Heinz Leymann and refers to harassing behavior in the workplace. “To mob” means to harass, attack, assault, or bully. Isolated instances of rudeness and insults are not considered bullying.
In bullying coaching, we analyze your current situation together and develop strategies for how you can identify and resolve the bullying situation through better resource utilization and appropriate stress management.
- Do you feel excluded at work, treated like you’re invisible?
- Are you constantly receiving new, sometimes contradictory, work instructions?
- Are you given tasks below your skill level?
- Are you experiencing sexual harassment or verbal sexual advances at work?
- Are you being ridiculed at work?
- Are you being criticized unfairly in your work?
- Are you being physically isolated by your colleagues at work?
Definition of mobbing according to Zapf (1999):
“Mobbing involves someone being harassed, intimidated, bullied, insulted, ostracized, or assigned humiliating tasks by colleagues, superiors, or subordinates at work, and the victim is in a weaker position. For something to be considered mobbing, it must occur frequently and repeatedly (e.g., at least once a week) and extend over a longer period (at least six months). Isolated incidents do not constitute mobbing. Nor does it constitute mobbing when two parties of roughly equal strength are in conflict.”