A quick overview of mobbing
The information provided below is taken from How to end mobbing: A proven 10-step process by V. d. M., G. which is available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0868215WW/.
Mobbing in itself is not correlated to the personality of the target, but is a group dynamic that unfolds if unfortunate factors collide. This means: it’s NOT the target. It’s a situation and a group dynamic. It is a well known phenomenon that individuals who may behave decently when alone will often become quite insane and nasty when part of a mob were common sense and reason goes out of the window! This is why psychopaths and narcissists like to get a mob together as they get to control a large group of people to carry out their hateful agenda while appearing to not get their hands dirty or even be involved. Today's social media is an excellent tool for this and is used very effectively by toxic individuals to enable their stalking and mobbing activities.
A common enemy
A very powerful way to strengthen any group is to create a common enemy which is usually imaginary but will be someone or a grup of people easy to target. This is an everyday tactic used in politics to create followers and supporters; anything can be used for this but the obvious ones are political views, religion, foreigners, etc. This is used to make the "others" out as not being one of "us" and is very easily done; this is the us-and-them mentallity most human beings seem to enjoy and is used to create mobs, wars, terrorism and all the other insane and fanatical movements in the world. The "others" are then used as scapegoats for all the ills in the world or in the mobs lives. The greater the percieved threat from the "others" or "them" the stronger the groups' bonds become.
In a nutshell people get involved in mobbing because they want to belong to a group and to strengthen the group’s bonds. It doesn't matter how insane or nasty the groups' motives are as long as the mob members have a sense of belonging.
In theory mobbing is NOT personal. although it certainly feels VERY personal to the target(s). It is just a bunch of people trying to strengthen their group’s bonds. And it is an effective, very unfair and hurtful, method of doing so.
There are two main forms of mobbing which are:
Active mobbing:
- Damaging personal property
- Publicly ridiculing someone
- Making jokes about someone
- Calling someone names
- Singing hurtful songs about someone
- Violence including physical assaults
- Hiding someone’s possessions
- Spreading hurtful content in social media (comments, posts, etc.)
- Killing pets
- Etc.
Active mobbing is fairly easy to identify as it is so obvious, the other form of mobbing is passive mobbing which is much more insidious and covert.
Passive mobbing:
- Spreading rumors
- Ignoring someone
- Excluding someone from activities (for instance, birthday parties, office drinks, digital chat groups)
- Sabotaging someone in meetings, discussions, conversations (i.e. arguing against them systematically, trying to ridicule their opinions)
- Withholding important information from someone
- Etc.
There are different roles in the mobbing process and there can be one or several people per role.
The driver:
These people actively drive the mobbing situation forward.
The in-group members:
These people are usually close to the driver(s). Together with the driver, they form a closely-knit group, which can be of different sizes. The driver is often the “leader” of the in-group, but this is not always the case.
The initiator:
This is an interesting role! You might have thought that the driver initiated the mobbing, but in my experience, this is often not the case (although it can be). Usually, this person was at the “edge” of the in-group, but has moved closer into the group in the course of the mobbing. He or she profits the most from the mobbing situation, because they can strengthen their belonging to the in-group.
The bystanders:
These people know about the mobbing activities. They do not actively participate in the mobbing (or very seldomly), but also take no stance against it. They might even inwardly condemn the mobbing activities, but will not speak up due to fear of becoming a target themselves.
The neutrals:
These people are unaware of the mobbing process. The “victim(s)”: This is the person or group of people that is targeted by the mobbing activities.
The protector:
This role unfortunately doesn’t always exist. These are people actively trying to support the “victim” to fight the mobbing process, but often do not succeed because they are too far away (for instance, teachers, HR employees, personal coaches) and/or lack influence on the driver(s).
Mobbing can have many causes and reasons, with some examples in the following:
Forming the in-group:
A person was looking for a target to strengthen his own identity and belong to a group, and you were the “easy choice”, because
- You were new to a group
- You are different in terms of race, age, political views, weight, language, looks, style, disability, etc.
Personal gain:
A person or group feels threatened by you, because
- You are more talented in a specific area (for instance, you have very good grades or performance reviews, you look more attractive, you are better at sports, etc.)
- You want to initiate changes (for instance, introduce new ways of working)
- You may receive a promotion ahead of someone else
- Your boss or teacher likes you more
- Etc.
Finding someone to blame:
A person or group experienced a stress situation and needed someone to blame, for instance
- Fault for wrong business decision
- Fault for lost sports event
- Fault for unhappy customers
- Etc.
Protecting group values:
You contradict an elemental group value, for instance
- differing political views
- You voice an opinion on the groups activities such as drug abuse, alcohol abuse, etc.
- You are opposed to how the group does business
Venting due to personal issues:
The inititaor has deep personal issues and seeks outlets for his or her rage, low self-worth, depression, in order to avoid taking responsibility for their own issues.
- Abusive parents/spouse
- Unhappy marriage
- Traumatic childhood
- Unsuccessful career
Mobbing usually occurs in four stages.
Phase 1. Initiation stage
This is covert and may only be visible in retropect, the iniatiator starts the mobbing covertly and most people will not realise what is happening at this stage. The initiator lobbys the in-group and builds on their reaction to get the ball rolling.
Phase 2. Beginning
The mobbing now moves beyond the in-group and it is only now that the target starts to notice an affect. This is strengthened by the use of lies, slander, gossip and rumours.
Phase 3. Ramp-up
The mobbing becomes more frequent, direct and hurtful. More and more people join in with the mobbing.
Phase 4. Fully fledged
This is the final stage of mobbing. There are very few bystanders and no neutrals and the number of people involved in the mobbing has increased dramatically and has spread way beyond the initial social group due to gossip, social media, etc. People start competing with each other to see how nasty they can be, effectively trying to out nasty each other!
Personal note:
A very good individual example of mobbing is the village of Blaxton, South Yorkshire, where the mobbing was initiated by a couple of neighbours either for pay or because of some slander. It has now gone through all four stages of mobbing and the local people are now best avoided; there are very few bystanders any more and most people are involved in the mobbing. It should be noted that a lot of people who used to come to the village to walk their dogs and visit the village now tend to stay away and other members of the village who knew what was going on have moved away because the village was becoming so toxic. This situation has been created by a few families and has successfully poisoned the whole village and even a few police officers have been corrupted!
The mobbing process is now totally out of control as most of the village is part of the mob or wants to be; if there is such a thing it is a fairly successful mobbing. It has managed to corrupt a whole community there a very few people with integrity or decent reputations left as their whole campaign is built on slander and lies.
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