Having a bad time to the point of not wanting to go to work, feeling anguish or presenting physical symptoms such as headaches. Avoiding certain work situations such as meetings or presentations, ending up socially isolated. Feeling unwell and that this discomfort conditions other areas of life. Suffering sleep problems or emotional instability. Feeling sad, depressed, insecure and with low self-esteem. These are just some of the symptoms that a person who suffers mobbing may present.
Harassment at work will affect both women and men, indistinctly, and can arise at any time or stage of work.
What does mobbing consist of?
The victim of mobbing will suffer psychological violence from a co-worker, a group of co-workers, their superiors or bosses.
Harassers will systematically generate situations in the workplace. These situations will not be directly related to the performance of the job itself, but will have to do with the relationship between people. In this way, it is not so much the efficiency or organization of the person at work that is criticized, but the personal characteristics of the victim. They will hide information from him/her, prevent communication with others, criticize aspects of his/her life, shout at him/her, ignore him/her, threaten him/her directly or indirectly… They will go so far as to ridicule him/her. They will provoke insecurity, lack of confidence or low self-esteem. Job stress will cause vulnerability to develop anxiety and/or depression among other pathologies. Your feeling of frustration, apathy or demotivation will be present in the other facets of your life. Your work performance may suffer and absenteeism will increase.
Therefore, it is essential to put a stop to the situation as soon as possible. It is possible.
What should we do if we suffer harassment at work?
Normalizing this situation can be very dangerous. Putting up with it or letting it pass can only increase the suffering of the victim and his or her feeling of helplessness and hopelessness. Psychological harassment in the workplace can cause great suffering to the person who receives it, even leading him or her to make painful and desperate decisions.
For this reason, we must act. It is very important to seek legal advice and report the harassment situation. The victim of harassment should surround him/herself with an appropriate environment, as good support is essential. To do so, trusting the people around him/her will be necessary and, therefore, telling them what is happening to him/her, everything he/she is suffering. Only in this way will others empathize with him.
Communicating the facts to the Safety, Prevention and Health Committee of the company or, failing that, bringing it to the attention of a legal representative of workers (for example, a member of a trade union) will be another step to follow in this important and necessary way to be able to end this violent situation. These professionals will know how to accompany you and help you in a relevant way.
And, last but not least, being guided, supported and helped psychologically by a specialist in psychology, through a personalized psychological therapy, will be essential to heal psychologically and to develop coping strategies for future work situations that may arise, so that these are satisfactory and free of conflict.