What is mobbing and how to combat it?

Mobbing is a specific type of violence that disrupts interpersonal relations in the workplace and negatively affects the functioning of employees and the entire company.

According to the Labour Code, mobbing means actions or behaviours concerning an employee or directed against an employee, consisting in persistent and long-term harassment or intimidation of the employee, causing them to have a lowered assessment of their professional usefulness, causing or aimed at humiliating or ridiculing the employee, isolating them or eliminating them from the team of co-workers.

Only an employee, i.e. a person employed under an employment contract, can be a victim of mobbing in this sense. It should be remembered that a mobber, i.e. a person committing mobbing, may be a person who is not an employee, e.g. employed under a work contract or a management contract.

Mobbing behaviours include:

• humiliation or denigration;
• intimidation;
• underestimating an employee’s professional suitability;
• unjustified criticism, humiliation or ridicule of an employee,
• making it difficult to function in the work environment in terms of the ability to achieve work results, perform work tasks, use one’s competences, communicate with colleagues, and access necessary information;
• isolating an employee or eliminating them from the team.

Mobbing consists in repeated, systematic, long-term actions directed against one or more people. To sum up the presented criteria of mobbing, additional behaviours that are not mobbing, but are often confused with it should be also mentioned, i.e.:

• a single act of humiliation, ridicule or disrespect towards an employee – regardless of how inappropriate the treatment of employees/co-workers is, it cannot be classified as mobbing,
• justified criticism – drawing attention to an employee, pointing out mistakes, suggesting improvements in situations where duties are not fulfilled or are fulfilled in an unreliable manner and yield low-quality results, these are the most appropriate behaviours and fall within the competences of the management staff,
• conflict – situations in which people do not like each other and are in conflict with each other. Conflict differs from mobbing in that in a conflict situation both parties theoretically seek to resolve it, while in mobbing this is not the case,
• working conditions that do not meet health and safety requirements (poor working conditions could be considered mobbing only if they are directed towards one person who also experiences harassment in another form,
• feeling of discomfort at work – dissatisfaction with assigned duties, reluctance to carry out assigned tasks, boredom with work, lack of fulfilment at work, lack of a sense of satisfaction.

Employees usually believe that mobbing is a behaviour of a superior towards subordinates, but experience shows that this is not the only relationship in which mobbing behaviour may occur.

Mobbing can occur at several levels:

1. bottom-up mobbing – the victim is a superior and the mobber is a subordinate or group of subordinates;
2. vertical mobbing – the victim is a subordinate and a manager, employer or other representative of management staff is a mobber;
3. horizontal mobbing – the mobber is a group of co-workers to which the victim belongs or who they depend on (e.g. carrying out common tasks).

If you believe you have experienced mobbing, you can file for corrective action.

WHO CAN REPORT A CASE?

• employees, including those working on a basis other than an employment contract
• the person against whom the report is made must be a person employed at the University of Lodz, and the event must take place on the premises of the university or be functionally related to its activities

HOW TO REPORT MOBBING?

You can report the case directly to:

• Anti-Discrimination, Anti-Mobbing and Other Undesirable Behaviours Coordinator,
• The Ombudsman for Academic Rights or the Spokespersons of the Section of Explanatory and Disciplinary Proceedings.

or click the REPORT A CASE button, fill in the form and send it to: razem@uni.lodz.pl

The proceedings in the case are conducted on the basis of the applicable Anti-Discrimination and Anti-Mobbing Procedure, which is a part of broader solutions adopted at the University of Lodz to counteract discrimination, mobbing and other undesirable behaviours. The corrective procedure specifies the principles underpinning preventive and intervention measures to offset the effects of: identified cases of violence in the work and study environment, discrimination, mobbing and other undesirable behaviours, as well as legal consequences for persons violating the regulations.

Corrective procedure conducted by the Anti-Discrimination, Anti-Mobbing and Other Undesirable Behaviours Coordinator

• Reporting a case to the Anti-Discrimination, Anti-Mobbing and Other Undesirable Behaviours Coordinator. 
• The Coordinator will decide within 14 days whether the report is justified or not. The Coordinator may return the case due to formal deficiencies in the application form. 
• Meeting with the affected person(s) and initially investigating the case. Listening, providing support or consultation – outlining possible solutions to the problem, including assistance in naming and diagnosing potential violations in the legal and psychological context and presenting relevant information, rules and legal regulations in force at the University of Lodz.
• If the Coordinator confirms the occurrence of signs of mobbing, they refer the case to the Anti-Mobbing Commission.

While considering the application, the Coordinator may:

• in the event of significant formal deficiencies in the notification, call the applicant to supplement them within 7 days counted from the date on which the person could have become acquainted with such a call, and if the defects are not supplemented within this period, leave the application unprocessed;
• conclude that the report clearly does not concern conduct that may be considered discrimination, mobbing or other undesirable behaviour and leave the case without consideration (while informing the reporting person of this fact);
• conclude that the application relates to a matter which should be dealt with under the disciplinary procedure and refer the matter to the unit responsible for disciplinary matters at the University of Lodz.
• There is no right of appeal against a negative decision by the Coordinator.

You can contact the Anti-Discrimination, Anti-Mobbing and Other Undesirable Behaviours Coordinator in person, by e-mail or by phone. It is necessary to arrange a meeting in advance by e-mail or telephone.

The corrective procedure conducted by the Anti-Mobbing Commission

• The Anti-Mobbing Commission conducts an explanatory proceeding based on a report submitted by the Anti-Discrimination, Anti-Mobbing and Other Undesirable Behaviours Coordinator.
• At any stage of considering an individual application, the Commission may, with the consent of the parties, refer the case to mediation.
• Having considered the case, the Commission issues an opinion indicating whether the acts or omissions in question bear the hallmarks of mobbing or are otherwise undesirable, and submits it, together with the case documentation, to the knowledge of the Rector of the University of Lodz, also to include recommendations e.g. to refer the case to the relevant disciplinary proceedings representative.
• The opinion should, unless prevented by the nature of the case, also contain proposals for corrective action, consisting in particular of:
  • transferring an employee to another position or to another organisational unit;
  • intensive periodic psychological support, including from an occupational psychologist; 
  • changes in the work organisation system,
  • forwarding the case for consideration in accordance with the competence of the bodies appointed within the structure of the University of Lodz to counteract and prevent the occurrence of undesirable behaviour in the academic environment (e.g. to the relevant disciplinary proceedings representative or conciliation commission – in accordance with the provisions of law).
• The Commission’s opinion may also include proposals for preventive measures to combat mobbing.
• The Commission's opinion is of advisory nature for the employer. The final decision in the cases being processed is made by the Rector of the University of Lodz.
• The procedure should be completed within two months of the appointment of the Commission (in justified circumstances this deadline may be extended).
• The Commission's opinion is of advisory nature for the employer. The final decision in the cases being processed is made by the Rector of the University of Lodz.
• Documentation of an individual case, including minutes of the Commission meetings and interviews conducted, is not made available to the parties.
• The opinion of the Commission, together with any recommendations, is communicated to the parties. 

If, after reading the above procedure, you believe that you have experienced mobbing, please fill in the form and send it to the following address: razem@uni.lodz.pl