Anyone Else Experience Mobbing?

[WeakAnkles]

Hi~

I have been at my new job for over a year now and have become the victim of mobbing by my peers in the ICU where I work.

I have tried every approach with this but nothing has helped my situation. I am going to have to leave this job for it to end.

It has caused me to become depressed, anxious at times, and I have gained weight.

I have also seen mobbing occur at other units where I have worked. I am wondering how prevalent this is now among nurses.

[Mulan]

Ignoring something doesn't just make it go away or not exist.

[steelcityrn, RN]

I totally agree with the others. Life is way too short. Go somewhere else and start over. How can anyone call themselves a nurse, supposed to care about others and cause such evil harm to their co-workers. Shame.

[GadgetRN71, ASN, RN]

Thats the problem. By trying to stop it, you thereby empower it. And it continues on. If you fail to recognize it, then it cant be empowered to go on. By itself it just dies without confrontation.

Also do not blame management. People like to blame management. Management isnt always the problem, and they are not always the answer to a problem.

Sometimes you have to recognize the problem and accept responsibility for it. Deal with but dont confront this kind of problem. It is empowered by confrontation. This kind of confrontation will only cause you to lose. Why lose.

Tom, I agree with you to a point. Namely, that 1) we shouldn't be looking at the workplace to give us close friends. To me, as much as I like my job, it isn't my life. 2) many of these bullies love a reaction so sometimes, ignoring it is a very workable thing.

But, after a while, this kind of negative bullcrap wears on you. I am actually a pretty tough broad..I can take a lot of grief. But really, why the hell should I? Many of these bullies engage in the kind of behavior that if they were to do that to me in my private life, I'd slap them one.Management has to step in, because I believe that a nurse manager sets the tone for the department.

I also don't believe in ignoring problems, utimately. I've taken to biting back. I can have a pretty wounding tongue when I need to, and am capable of putting the nasty, crusty nurses in their place. Bullies pick on the weak and ignoring it to me is weak.

[teeituptom, BSN, RN]

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING! You do not live in the real world, or the fantasy you do is 1 in a million. Just cause YOU live in the perfect world does NOT mean everyone else does, you are a forturnate one then. As I have seen it is all aspects hospital and EMS to different people and for different reasons. OH AND YES, MANAGEMENT HAS A HELL of a LOT to do with it. Most the time they have no NADS to do anything.

When people leave and when asked why' and they all keep giving the same answer" and management smiles, nods, and sticks their head back in the sand and say"Why is everyone leaving?" , they will never figure it out.

As a Hospital Corpsman, orderly, medic, nursing student, and a nurse for well over a quarter of a century. I have seen it all. and blaming management is the easy and expedient way out. Personally I prefer stepping up to the Tee Box

[teeituptom, BSN, RN]

Tom, I agree with you to a point. Namely, that 1) we shouldn't be looking at the workplace to give us close friends. To me, as much as I like my job, it isn't my life. 2) many of these bullies love a reaction so sometimes, ignoring it is a very workable thing.

But, after a while, this kind of negative bullcrap wears on you. I am actually a pretty tough broad..I can take a lot of grief. But really, why the hell should I? Many of these bullies engage in the kind of behavior that if they were to do that to me in my private life, I'd slap them one.Management has to step in, because I believe that a nurse manager sets the tone for the department.

I also don't believe in ignoring problems, utimately. I've taken to biting back. I can have a pretty wounding tongue when I need to, and am capable of putting the nasty, crusty nurses in their place. Bullies pick on the weak and ignoring it to me is weak.

Actually Im fairly tough also. believe it or not. But really a lot of that biting goes around me to elsewhere. And I agree there are a lot of coworkers who really dont want to cross my path outside in real life.

But I no longer defend the weak. By defending the weak you are doing them a disservice. You always defend them, how will they grow and learn to defend themselves.

[Miss Mab]

Y'know, i can stand a pithy comment or two(or10) every now and then. Simplicity sometimes makes me smile.

But for the VERY small minority of posters here who don't appear to have ever seen such behavior or if they do, stand by and do nothing, it might be better to just consider this thread a read only.

Calling a victim "weak" is pathetic in itself. This particular mobbing tactic hasn't been used on me---wait, i take that back, I think they tried but I wasn't fallin' for it----but it obviously exists and if you're one to make light of a very serious danger happening daily within our "profession", maybe one should keep quiet on here as that's the stated mode of operation chosen at work when these behaviors are actually occurring and where one could actually make a positive difference for a unit/hospital/nursing's future.

Nah, guess the making fun part is more fun....

[WeakAnkles]

there have recently been studies done on mobbing in the workplace. i suggest interested persons google the topic and read up/educate themselves.

i have found this myself, and other material i have read supports it:

who mobs

"the literature is particularly critical of the perpetrators of mobbing. according to namie and namie (2000) those who instigate mobbing tend to be bullies, who try to dominate people in nearly every encounter. they are described as “inadequate, defective, and poorly developed people” (namie and namie, 2000, p. 14). they tend to be unpredictable, angry, critical, jealous, and manipulative (davenport, schwartz and elliot, 1999; namie and namie 2000). finally,glass (1999) describes them as representing “everything bad” (p. 239).

targets of mobbing

an individual can be mobbed regardless of age, race, religion, gender, or rank within an organization (davenport, schwartz and elliot, 1999; namie and namie 2000; leymann, n.d.). though any person is susceptible to being mobbed, those individuals who are devoted, loyal, creative, organized, cooperative and experienced professionals, seem to be at a higher likelihood to experience mobbing (davenport, schwartz and elliot, 1999).

it is suggested that particularly creative individuals may often be subjected to mobbing because they promote new ideas which may challenge others (davenport, schwartz and elliot, 1999). mobbing may begin out of jealousy over the superior competence of the target, envy over the targets social skills or envy regarding the positive attitude of the target that attracts colleagues to them (namie and namie, 2000). at times mobbing is done as a bully revels in animosity, gaining pleasure from the excitement that it creates, giving the bully what westhues (2002) calls “the euphoria of collective attack”.

why do targets endure

it may be questioned why a person would stay in a job in which she/he is being mobbed. mobbing victims often stay because they love their work (davenport, schwartz and elliot, 1999). they feel a sense of identity, competence, and commitment to what they do.

it is perhaps the targets commitment to the job that leaves him/her ill prepared for the mobbing experience. targets dedicated to their work may rely on their superior efforts to move ahead and gain recognition, in lieu of tracking the politics of the job. targets tend to be empathic, just, and fair people (namie & namie 2000: auerbach, 2001), who naively believe if they don’t fight back against mobbing and continue to excel in their work, the perpetrator will lose interest and stop or that others will recognize the work they do and disbelieve the rumors and lies being told. this lack of knowledge about mobbing leaves the target little time to build the necessary survival networks to combat the problem (davenport, schwartz and elliot, 1999)."

i will say this for myself, i am a strong person. i have fought the good fight for over a year. but, you can not beat the mob, or ignore them either. i wish i knew what "the survival networks" mentioned above were because i have found none.

do not let my "weakankles" sign-on id fool you. the only thing weak about me is my ankles, and my back.

[WeakAnkles]

i forgot these from the quotes:

references

auerbach, j. e. (2001). personal and executive coaching: the complete guide for mental health professionals. ventura, ca: executive college press.

davenport, n., schwartz, r. d., and elliot, g. p. (1999). mobbing: emotional abuse in the american workplace. ames, ia: civil society publishing.

glass, l. (1999). the complete idiot’s guide to verbal self-defense. new york, ny: alpha books.

leymann, h. (n. d.) the mobbing encyclopedia: bullying; whistleblowing. retrieved july 28, 2005, from http://www.leymann.se/english/frame.html.

namie, g, and namie, r. (2000). the bully at work. naperville, il: sourcebooks inc.

westhues, k. (2002). at the mercy of the mob: a summary of research on workplace mobbing [electronic version]. canada’s occupational health and safety magazine, 18, 30-36.

[Cattitude]

AllNurses has 246,141 members.

I'd love to hear from some of the Nurses who engage in this behavior.

This is so prevalent, out of 241k people on this forum SOMEONE must have been a bully or been part of the MOB.

Why would you ever do this to a co-worker?

What did you get out of it?

How could you be stopped?

I see no one has responded to your question. Why am I not surprised?

Not ONE nurse on this forum can step up and admit to bullying?

It would have been interesting to hear from the "other side".

I want to know exactly what the bully wants to accomplish.

What is the end result?

[TiredMD]

It would have been interesting to hear from the "other side".

I want to know exactly what the bully wants to accomplish.

What is the end result?

I'm not a nurse, but in medicine we "mob" each other regularly, mainly medical students and residents. It's our culture. The most severe instances are usually because of a general feeling that the person is incompetent, and patients would be better off if the person would quit. I had assumed that this was the same in nursing?

[GadgetRN71, ASN, RN]

Actually Im fairly tough also. believe it or not. But really a lot of that biting goes around me to elsewhere. And I agree there are a lot of coworkers who really dont want to cross my path outside in real life.

But I no longer defend the weak. By defending the weak you are doing them a disservice. You always defend them, how will they grow and learn to defend themselves.

I agree with this somewhat...I just have too much of the maternal in me to let it slide.

[Mulan]

I'm not a nurse, but in medicine we "mob" each other regularly, mainly medical students and residents. It's our culture. The most severe instances are usually because of a general feeling that the person is incompetent, and patients would be better off if the person would quit. I had assumed that this was the same in nursing?

No, in nursing it's more likely that they don't like someone for some reason, maybe they just don't like the color of their eyes.