Generality
Bullying is hostile and persecutory behavior carried out towards an employee or a work colleague, in order to marginalize him or deprive him of the functions exercised in the "work organization".
The basic dynamics of the phenomenon consists in an attitude of psychological harassment or harassment aimed at isolating the victim, preventing him from fully carrying out his normal work activity.
Bullying can be divided into:
- Horizontal: practiced by colleagues for various reasons, including competition, careerism, career, envy or racial, cultural, religious and political difference.
- Vertical: implemented by the employer or superiors, sometimes to induce the employee to resign.
This form of marginalization represents one of the main causes of stress in the work environment and can have very damaging repercussions on the health of the person mobbed, such as anxiety, panic, isolation, depression, alterations in the sleep-wake rhythm, dizziness, headache and behavioral disturbances. .
The worker who is the victim of mobbing can therefore develop real physical or psychological pathologies, which can be compensated through a request for compensation for damages.
Mobbing: Definition
“Mobbing” derives from the English verb “to mob”, which means “to attack en masse”.
In its transposition in the workplace, the term takes on the meaning of an oppressive, persecutory practice or, more generally, of psychological violence perpetrated by the employer or by colleagues against an individual to force him to resign or, in any case, to leave the "professional environment, for reasons of competition, envy, jealousy or bad interpersonal relationships.
The identifying elements of bullying are:
- The presence of at least two subjects (mobber and mobbed) who come into conflict with each other in the working environment;
- Continuous and lasting harassment (hostile behavior occurs on a weekly basis, for at least six months);
- The purpose of isolating the victim in the workplace to permanently remove him or her from exercising an active role at work.
This form of psychological violence is not a stable and sudden event, but turns out to be a real articulated process, which gradually evolves over time through different stages. In order for mobbing to exist, therefore, a single act is not enough, but a plurality of situations is necessary.
Curiosity: mobbing in ethology
In the study of animal behavior, the term "mobbing" is used to describe the behavior of some animal species, consisting in "threateningly surround a predator, an intruder or a member of the herd or flock itself to remove it.
Triggering factors
Before assuming legal relevance, bullying was the subject of various medical studies by psychologists and sociologists.
At work, the phenomenon takes the form of psychological terrorism which implies a hostile attitude and situations of systematic conflict on the part of one or more people (placed in a higher, lower or equal position with respect to the mobbed person), with the aim of causing damage of various type and severity towards the individual targeted.
The worker victim of bullying becomes the object of continuous harassment and persecutory activities, which recur with systematic frequency over a not short period of time, causing him considerable mental, psychosomatic and social suffering.
The will to harm the victim can be motivated by a political purpose and corporate strategy, but also by unconscious emotional factors, such as character components or feelings of revenge and envy favored by some personality traits.
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