Mobbing: Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace [Paperback]

Noa Davenport (Author), Ruth D. Schwartz (Author), Gail Pursell Elliott (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0967180309 | ISBN-13: 978-0967180304 | Publication Date: July 1999 | Edition: 1

Everyday capable, hardworking, committed employees suffer emotional abuse at their workplace. Some flee from jobs they love, forced out by mean-spirited co-workers, subordinates or superiors -- often with the tacit approval of higher management.

The authors, Dr. Noa Davenport, Ruth Distler Schwartz, and Gail Pursell Elliott have written a book for every employee and manager in America. The book deals with what has become a household word in Europe: Mobbing.

Mobbing is a "ganging up" by several individuals, to force someone out of the workplace through rumor, innuendo, intimidation, discrediting, and particularly, humiliation. Mobbing is a serious form of nonsexual, nonracial harassment. It has been legally described as status-blind harassment.

Mobbing affects the mental and physical health of victims. It extracts staggering costs from victims, their families, and from organizations.

With this new book, Mobbing: Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace, there is a name for the problem and help for the victims. The book helps readers to understand what mobbing is, why it occurs, how it affects a victim and organizations, and what people can so. The authors have interviewed victims from across the U.S. and the book contains many quotes that poignantly illustrate the gravity of the mobbing experience. An overview of the literature and research is provided as well as many practical strategies to help the victims, managers, healthcare and legal professionals. Original drawings by Sabra Vidali express the depth of the experience and enhance the authors' work.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is the first U.S. book on mobbing, a widespread and serious form of workplace victimization. We are in the authors' debt for bringing mobbing to the attention of the American public and recommending ways to halt it. -- Dr. Nicole Rafter, Professor in Northeastern University's Law, Policy, and Society Program

Until evil is named, it cannot be addressed. This book names "mobbing," a common and bloodless form of workplace mayhem, and proceeds with brilliance to show its roots and possible cures. -- Daniel Maguire, Professor of Ethics, Marquette University, Author of Ethics for a Small Planet

From the Publisher

This is an important book. It sheds light on great suffering and proposes ideas to reduce this suffering," wrote Dr. Heinz Leymann, the Swedish-German researcher who named "mobbing" and brought it to the attention of the European community in the Foreword of this book.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Civil Society Pub; 1 edition (July 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967180309
• ISBN-13: 978-0967180304
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #62,017 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 84 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Mobbing:" A book that could save your life!, July 27, 2005

By 

L. Cook "ittycar" (Davenport, IA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mobbing: Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace (Paperback)

I stumbled across the term "mobbing," and then the book on amazon, late one night. I ordered the book after I read the description. "Mobbing" -- a group activity at work in which one person is singled out to be eliminated -- was a new term to me. But the idea of mobbing was not new. I was mobbed four years ago and, as do so many mobbees, finally left my job because of the excruciating mental and emotional suffering I endured. The women who mobbed me subsequently have mobbed two other people -- who both left with no job on the horizon -- and doubtlessly will continue to mob whoever holds this particular position that reports to her. This book helped me understand the behavior, how it occurs, how it builds up, and, most of all, that it happens to millions of other people every day. I realized that what happened was not my fault, and now I feel more confident as a professional than I have for the past four years since the mobbing. Please understand that I am not a fan of self-help books -- I'm a pretty no-nonsense type and think that some of these books are frivolous folderol.
But not "Mobbing." I even emailed the authors, who took the time to personally answer me.
This is a fantastic book. If you're being mobbed now, it will help you cope. If you have been mobbed, it will help you recover.
Once more, thanks to the authors for bringing this ugly facet of the working world to light.

91 of 95 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I was Mobbed and Survived!!!, November 5, 2003

By 

Marie Paoletti (Hayward, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mobbing: Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace (Paperback)

One of the most insidious ruses used by management, when they want you out, is to allow, in fact, condone, bullying by your peers. And when you complain, they ask you "What did you do to deserve it?" It doesn't matter if you are the most productive customer service rep. with a large and satisfied client base, if they don't like you or feel threatened by you, you will get mobbed.

I had not realized, until I read this book, that there was a name for what I had experienced. With a lot of counseling, talks with trusted friends and anti-depressant medication, I held my own for several years. And what was my sin? Being the Union Rep. with integrity, protecting even some of the people who made my life miserable. What really made my blood pressure go up was when I read that most people who experience severe mobbing, leave the work force and can never return.

Fortunately I was able to leave after 19 yrs and start another career in another industry. But I lost seniority, affecting vacation benefits, sick leave benefits and placement on the lay off list. The good thing is that I don't experience the mobbing where I now work and I am in fact, respected, for my Union history (some of it had made the newspapers) and integrity.

Being able to put a name with what was happening helped me to be able to make it through the last couple of months on the old job. I also started following suggestions in the book, including using them with the Union rep. who had also not supported me. I am heartened that this harrassment is now recognized and employers can be made to pay for it. But the courts and lawyers are still not too keen on prosecuting. This book is one of the best on the subject, an easy read, but don't read it while in the doctor's waiting room, your blood pressure will go off the charts!!

81 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scary, Infuriating, And Enlightening, October 16, 2002

By 

miles@riverside (Indio, CA United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Mobbing: Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace (Paperback)

Do you ever read in the paper how a large company is planning to eliminate 1,000 jobs or so over the next year through something called "attrition"? They're not going to lay people off and have to pay those pesky unemployment benefits, they're just going to reap the harmless and friendly windfall of attrition. It's like 1,000 people or so at this company are going to wake up one day and, for no particular reason, just up and decide to get new jobs or whatever! Hey, what a great deal for the company! Such a great deal!

Of course, what many of us who have undergone the attrition process learn is that a company actively encourages people to volunteer to quit their jobs. Or perhaps some managers want to encourage certain employees they don't particularly like to quit -- with the implicit collusion of upper management. And of course this encouragement usually takes the form of insults, threats, humiliations, blackmail, manipulations, treachery, harrassment, gangings-up-on, behind-the-back criticisms, "one-on-one" meetings with concerned managers, and various other forms of encouragement. You can complain, of course, but whomever at the company you want to complain to feels, well, they really have to side with Management on this one -- it must be all YOUR fault.

Even the most arrogant and self-secure can have bad feelings about such experiences months or even years after the fact. Rage, frustation, grinding teeth, revenge fantasies -- these are your only true pals (it seems).

Unfortunately, some people suffer a lot more than feelings of protracted anger. This books describes cases where workers have been rewarded with long-term depression, heart attacks, and even suicide. Management excels at making their mistakes and their policies look like YOUR fault. The most conscientious workers get it the worst, since they actually care enough about their work to take all the criticism seriously. It's a weeding-out of the best, most productive people.

I highly recommend this book to everyone who works for any company or organization. The authors spell out in satisfying detail exactly what sort of abuses go on at companies (borderline legal abuse and otherwise). They also discuss the underlying causes that motivate Mobbing: "attrition" is one I discussed above, but job competition, personal dislike, and power politics are also factors. They also discuss how to recognize when it's happening, and what you can do (although I'm afraid getting another job pretty much tops the short list of recommended actions).