Mobbing in the workplace is a widespread phenomenon which gained prominence in the media in the last couple of decades, although it has probably existed for as long as people organize in order to work and perform tasks more efficiently. As the problem entered the spotlight,the awareness starting growing and people are now more likely to recognize when they are potential victims of mobbing in the workplace. But what to do once you realize you have been ostracized from the rest of your colleagues, or, even worse, actively abused by your peers?
Here is a couple of suggestions on what might be the best actions to undertake.
The first and most important skill to master is the ability to play it cool. Anger is definitely not the solution to the problem you have, because, no matter how righteous it is, anger is still anger and it is most often perceived as a negative thing, which, in the eyes of your fellow workers who still haven’t taken the sides, might be seen as a proof of the bully actually being right about you. Calm behaviour, on the other side, will be a reason for your colleagues to realize you are the good guy in the conflict.
Furthermore, do not let your enthusiasm for work suffer because you are being mistreated at the workplace and the company’s management isn’t doing anything to protect you. We know it is easier said than done, but you need to find some kind of motivation for work, something that will make you still do your best and show that you can perform well even under pressure. If nothing else is there to motivate you, you can always do it out of spite towards your bully.
Mobbing is usually difficult to pinpoint and for this reason you need to do everything to make your case visible to your peers and, which is more important, to your management. First, make sure that, whenever it is possible, you document the cases of bullying you were the victim of. Try talking to your colleagues who were the witnesses of some of the incidents and convince them give their statements and officially take your side. You stand much better chances of winning this fight if you make the problem stand out, so do everything in your power to attract the attention to it, while still remaining calm and seemingly unaffected. If you do everything right,
your bully will soon lose their leverage and it will become obvious that they are responsible for mobbing you.
The last but not least important thing to do is – educate yourself. Learn about your country’s or state’s employment law and find out how to anticipate and solve the problem, as well as which legal tool you have available for dealing with the problem. Many countries updated their laws so that the workers are protected against mobbing and have enough instruments to report and fight it successfully.
