GC: n
S: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/mobbing-workplace-43426.html (last access: 10 July 2016); http://www.overcomebullying.org/mobbing.html (last access: 10 July 2016).
N: 1. Present participle of mob (1680s, “disorderly part of the population, rabble,” slang shortening of mobile, mobility “common people, populace, rabble” -1670s, probably with a conscious play on nobility-, from Latin mobile vulgus “fickle common people” -the phrase attested c. 1600 in English-, from mobile, neuter of mobilis “fickle, movable, mobile”). In Australia and New Zealand, used without disparagement for “a crowd.” Meaning “gang of criminals working together” is from 1839, originally of thieves or pick-pockets; American English sense of “organized crime in general” is from 1927).
2. “Mobbing” involves a group of people whose size is constrained by the social setting in which it is formed, such as a workplace. It might seem to the target as if many people are involved but in reality the group might be small. The group members directly interact with a target in an adversarial way that undermines or harms them in measurable, definable ways.
3. Mobbing has absolutely nothing in common with a conspiracy theory known as “Gang Stalking” (to which believers also refer as “Community Mobbing”, “Community Stalking”, “Stalking by Proxy”, “Organized Stalking”, “Cause Stalking”, “Multi-Stalking”). One of the hallmarks of “Gang Stalking” is that all the self-defined “Targeted Individuals” who claim to describe the phenomenon are are unable to produce any objective evidence of it. If you wish to know about mobbing, stay on this page. If you want to read about “gang stalking”, click here.
4. The word mobbing is preferred to bullying in continental Europe and in those situations where a target is selected and bullied (mobbed) by a group of people rather than by one individual. However, every group has a ringleader. If this ringleader is an extrovert it will be obvious who is coercing group members into mobbing the selected target. If the ringleader is an introvert type, he or she is likely to be in the background coercing and manipulating group members into mobbing the selected target; introvert ringleaders are much more dangerous than extrovert ringleaders.
5. Workplace Bullying tends to happen in phases that can be called (1) Isolation, (2) Control and Subjugation and (3) Elimination. The terminology in the examples applies to workplaces but has parallels in other situations. Examples are loosely categorised under the “Phase” headings but in reality any of the example behaviours can occur in any phase.
S: 1. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mobbing (last access: 10 July 2016); OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=mob (last access: 10 July 2016). 2 to 4. http://bullyonline.org/old/workbully/mobbing.htm (last access: 10 July 2016). 5. http://bullyonline.org/workbully/amibeing.htm#what_is_workplace_bullying (last access: 2 September 2014).
SYN: 1. workplace bullying. 2. harassment in the workplace, workplace harassment.
S: 1. http://www.lni.wa.gov/safety/research/files/bullying.pdf (last access: 16 July 2012); http://bullyonline.org/workbully/amibeing.htm#what_is_workplace_bullying (last access: 2 September 2014). 2. GDT – http://www.granddictionnaire.com/ficheOqlf.aspx?Id_Fiche=8870840 (last access: 10 July 2016).
