The Brutal Campaign of Mobbing

by Jeffrey B. Roth

Every work day, for the past seven years, Mary experiences debilitating dread, fear, anxiety, shame, self-doubt and physical symptoms related to prolonged, extreme stress, as she prepares to go work.

Mary is a performer at a world-renowned Maryland-based, entertainment venue. Her other job is teaching at a respected institution of higher learning.

“What’s happening with me is that I have a colleague, who laid the groundwork for sabotaging my career,” Mary, who has performed for audiences around the world, said, punctuating her comment with a small, nervous laugh. “It’s all covert aggression, covert messaging…with the goal of discrediting me, like I was the sacrificial lamb, convincing people I was a difficult person.”

Reduced revenue and budget tightening provided “a situation that was ripe for the bullies to move in and take over the playground,” Mary said. “She, (the bully) garnered a pretty significant following—about 50 percent of the people in my (work) area didn’t trust me, started pulling away from me, were rumoring and gossiping about me. A new colleague always sat with her back to me and would never talk to me.”

Not only was Mary being bullied by one person, she experienced a type of group bullying, known as mobbing. The term, coined in the early 1980s by Swedish psychologist, Heinz Leymann, describes an extreme form of workplace bullying. Mobbing involves one or two leaders, and a group of employees in a systematic campaign of psychological intimidation and terror designed to punish, isolate, alienate, humiliate and destroy the reputation and career of a targeted co-worker.

Mary’s health suffered. She experienced a weight gain, trouble sleeping, unexplained skin irritations, anxiety, self-doubt, a loss of reputation and became alienated from her colleagues. Mary believes stress caused her to have two unexplained grand mal seizures. She has been receiving treatment for the stress from a medical professional.

“Eventually, some of my colleagues came to me to tell me what outrageous things they themselves had encountered with these people,” Mary said. “They told me how they could see what I have been talking about. They revealed their true opinions finally, which they had been reluctant to acknowledge earlier. I know myself. Rather than being difficult or dictatorial, I have often felt I am too quiet, too shy, a true push-over, too tolerant, too patient, too cooperative, ready to offer the benefit of the doubt which, oddly, was never reciprocated by these people. I am a very compassionate, empathetic soul.”

Rumors, lies and gossip were spread by her tormentors. The bullies were “incessantly combative; at times, quite shockingly so,” Mary said. Increasingly Mary recognized the attacks were formulaic and calculated. It seemed incredible to her that many of her colleagues appeared to accept the lies and could be manipulated without any attempts to discern the truth.

Despite reporting the mobbing to her supervisors and to her union representative, no disciplinary actions were taken against her bullies. Mary said the lack of administrative support has been dis-empowering, destructive and has made her more vulnerable to harassment.

Desperate, Mary began researching bullying and mobbing on the Internet. Eventually, she found and contacted the Workplace Bullying Institute for help. (The director of the Institute, Gary Namie, referred Mary to Carroll Magazine to share her story.)

Mary said she has reached a crossroads in her fight against her workplace mob. Once she determined she was being intentionally victimized, she began to research possible solutions to the problem, including contacting an employment attorney about taking legal action to remedy the situation.

Namie said that teachers and nurses are the most bullied of any profession. Mobbing and bullying is common in careers involving creativity and the arts. Jealousy in public schools has increased in response to standardized testing and performance evaluations, which are being used to retain, promote and justify salary raises.

The mobbing campaign against Jane, a 20-year-plus veteran high school teacher with ties to Carroll County, follow a similar pattern to those of Mary. Forced into early retirement to escape a six-year campaign of daily bullying and mobbing by other teachers, Jane became disillusioned with school administrators and distrustful of her professional colleagues.

Dedicated to her students and passionate about her subject area, Jane did not immediately recognize that she was being mobbed. As did Mary, Jane experienced stress-related high blood pressure, sleep disruption, a reduced ability to fight illness, experienced depression, anxiety and a loss of self-confidence and, ultimately, her career.

“Sometime in 2009 the bullying started,” said Jane, who earned an MFA from a prestigious Maryland university. “It began in such a subtle way that I barely noticed it. One of my co-workers sent me an email telling me that she no longer wanted to be my friend. Her reasons were not specific, but had to do with something about my being ‘too emotional.’ I recall sending a few emails in reply, trying to find out what, exactly, I did to offend her, and I apologized for any perceived wrong, but I got no reply.”

A faculty department chair, Jane faced passive-aggressive behavior from her former friend. It didn’t take long before the bully gained the support of a new teacher, and other department faculty, which resulted in the formation of a mob.

“I became increasingly isolated, since these two teachers were my only peers,” said Jane, who eventually became the target of a formal complaint filed by her colleagues. “Opposition came, in subtle ways, to my position as department chair.”

The lead bully criticized the operation of the department. Over the course of three years, the bully’s overt opposition to Jane led to all of the other department teachers refusing to participate in the public department functions; and refusing to attend department meetings.

“I stepped down as department chair,” Jane said. “I honestly thought, at the time, that by removing myself from that position might solve the problem, and, at least, give me some relief from all of the opposition. She, (the uncooperative teacher) became department chair, and the bullying began to escalate in frequency and severity.”

One of the first formal complaints they filed accused Jane, the adviser for an extracurricular club, of not enforcing the academic performance requirements for student membership in the club. Jane was excluded from department meetings; any suggestions she made to improve the department were ridiculed and ignored; she was excluded from taking her students on field trips with the department; and daily bullying caused other faculty to not acknowledge or speak to her.

As happened to Mary, Jane’s antagonists filed a formal complaint against her accusing her of unprofessional behavior. The administration dismissed the complaint and reprimanded the teachers who lodged the complaint.

“In June of 2015, as I was getting ready to leave on summer vacation, I received a phone call to come to the office,” Jane said. “I sat down with my principal, who announced that I was going to be transferred to the elementary school next year to teach kindergarten and elementary-level classes. I was never given a reason for this move, after 20 years of successfully teaching high school and running the department.”

Jane has been emotionally devastated. The mob essentially ended her career as a respected teacher. She continues to suffer bouts of depression, is distrustful of the motives of others, and the bullying has caused her to doubt her ability as an educator.

“My self-esteem plummeted, and I isolated myself from friends and family,” Jane said. “I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and began taking medication. My doctor believed it was stress induced from my job. I not only lost my job, I lost what I loved and lived for—being the best teacher I could be; to inspire, train and motivate kids to excel and experience the joy of pursuing their dreams.”

The bullying was planned, systematic and transpired over a long period of time. The original bullies recruited more bullies to the cause, including administrators, Jane said. They convinced her colleagues and supervisors that she was to blame and needed to be removed from her position to restore order and peace in the department. Jane was labeled as the instigator and trouble maker.

Jimmie L. Saylor, director of human resources for Carroll County Public Schools said he was unfamiliar with the national statistics. He believes teacher bullying incidents at the school district is less than national statistics indicate.

“CCPS do not come close to 35 percent,” Saylor said. “Workplace issues that are reported are investigated by professional staff in Human Resources. The results of the investigation are reviewed with the Superintendent and appropriate action/follow through occurs. Human Resources has investigated an average of three to four reports of bullying/harassment per year over the past several years. We provide annual training through Safe Schools in the identification and reporting of such incidents. We also provide information regarding protection against retaliation for reporting such concerns. The Board of Education has a policy specific to sexual harassment, but also has adopted the attached Code of Professional Conduct, which is in the employee handbook and reviewed annually with all employees as part of the Safe Schools training.”

Neither Carroll Community College nor McDaniel College have specific workplace bullying policies. They do have formal policies regarding various forms of harassment and unprofessional behavior.

“Carroll Community College is an organization that values, recognizes and rewards just, humane, honest and respectful human interaction; ethical and truthful representation of the college to students and the community; positive and collaborative problem-solving; and solutions-oriented action,” said Sylvia Blair, spokesperson for the college. “We have developed an integrity code with a formal reporting process for students. An employee code of conduct is found in the Employee Handbook as well as a reporting process.”

Cheryl Knauer, spokesperson for McDaniel College, emailed a link to the college website dealing with human resource policies. The policy states: “McDaniel College…does not discriminate on the basis of sex in any of the College’s educational programming and activities. The College is committed to preserving an educational and employment environment that is free from gender-based discrimination, gender-based harassment, sexual harassment, sexual violence, and relationship violence and stalking….”

WORKPLACE BULLYING, THE SILENT EPIDEMIC

Workplace bullying has been called “the silent epidemic.”

It causes employees to take off more time from work than they would in a bully-free environment; healthcare insurance costs increase because of the mental and physiological effects of being bullied; work production decreases; work quality decreases; and work-related injuries increase. Some studies estimate the monetary cost of bullying is more than $200 billion per year.

The two professions targeted by workplace bullies more often than any of profession? Teachers and nurses, according to Gary Namie, research director at the Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI).

Workplace bullies, according to statistics gathered by the WBI and other research groups, have affected more than 65.6 million adult Americans. Surveys and other forms of research indicates that anywhere from 35-96 percent of all American workers have been personally, bullied, mobbed or affected by bullies in the workplace.

David Maxfield, co-founder of VitalSmarts Research, and coauthor of two books: Crucial Conversations and Influencer, said “96 percent of respondents, [to the 2014 VitalSmarts bullying survey], say they have experienced workplace bullying. Eighty-nine percent of those bullies have been at it for more than a year; 54 percent for more than five years.”

About 29 percent of victims of workplace bullying consider suicide or bullycide; and 16 percent actually develop suicide plans. About half of all long-term bullying/mobbing victims develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms and a large percentage suffers suffer from stress-related physical ailments, such as high blood pressure, weight gain, reduced immune systems, sleep disorders, etc.

Victims of bullying and mobbing share a few characteristics, said Namie. Less skilled, less motivated employees target experienced, exceptional, highly educated, well-liked, respected, ethical, honest, creative people with a strong work ethic as a result of jealousy. In public schools standardized testing results and teacher performance evaluations, increase the likelihood that quality teachers are targeted by less accomplished teachers.

“It’s always the veteran, competent, employees who are targeted because the bullies are threatened by exceptional colleagues,” Namie said. “Targets are independent. They refuse to be subservient. Bullies seek to enslave targets. When targets take steps to preserve their dignity, their right to be treated with respect, bullies escalates their campaigns of hatred and intimidation to wrest control of the target’s work from the target.”

The WBI reports that 40 percent of bully victims fail to report the harassment to employers, and in 62 percent of the reported cases, supervisors ignored the victims. Namie, the author of “The Bully at Work: What You Can Do to Stop the Hurt and Reclaim Your Dignity on the Job,” said 81 percent of employers do nothing to address bullying or resist taking any corrective actions in response to reports of bullying.

While bullies may act alone, an extreme form of group bullying, known as mobbing, is often more damaging to victims because the level of harassment increases along with the size of the mob. Common mobbing tactics include false accusations, gossip, humiliation, intimidation, condescending behavior, ridicule, isolation and emotional abuse. Namie said the goal of mobbing is to redefine the target’s public identity, reputation and character.

There are three types of mobbing: vertical, where a superior orchestrates the bullying campaign; horizontal, where a victim is targeted by a colleague with a comparable job level; and down-vertical, where employees mob a manager. Namie said mobbing goes through distinct phases—first discernible conflict; non-resolved conflicts; the start of mobbing which causes physical and mental health problems; aggressive acts and psychological attacks, which causes work performance to decrease; intensive mobbing, which manifests in employee tardiness, increased sick leave, and managers misinterpreting the situation; branding and labeling, where the victim is depicted as difficult or mentally ill; and finally resignations, firing and removal.

Namie’s organization has been responsible for introducing healthy workplace initiatives designed to intervene and rectify bullying, and advocate for the victim in 29 states and two territories over the course of the last 19 years. None of the bills have ever been adopted.

Maryland State Senator C. Anthony Muse of Prince George’s County has been an advocate for the adoption of a Healthy Workplace bill for Maryland, for numerous years. Each time it has been introduced, the bill has died in the Finance Committee.

“There is no will (on the part of legislators) to deal with it,” Muse said. “They simply choose not to act. There is no will on the part of the Finance Committee members to hear employee testimonies.”

Muse said he gets call after call from people who have been targeted by bullies in the workplace. The challenge is getting those voices heard by lawmakers. So far, that has not happened.

For more information on the Workplace Bullying Institute, visit www.workplacebullying.org. •