Milagrosa Gutiérrez: "Mobbing is a taboo subject".

Psychologist Milagrosa Gutiérrez se Uriarte talks to us about the phenomenon of mobbing.

Workplaces are much more than places where people go to earn money in exchange for effort and the implementation of skills. They are also a context in which much of what makes us feel satisfied or dissatisfied with our lives takes place.

Therefore, the social interactions that occur in the workplace, even those that are part of informal communication, greatly influence how we feel. In this sense, mobbing is a problem to be mobbing is a problem to be taken into account.Not only does it make working hours a living hell, but it also damages the victim's quality of life during all hours of the week. In this interview with psychologist Milagrosa Gutiérrez we will talk about it.

Interview with Milagrosa Gutiérrez: understanding mobbing

Milagrosa Gutiérrez de Uriarte is a psychologist with a practice in Santiago de Compostela and founder of the psychology office A Procura.. In this interview she talks to us about the phenomenon of mobbing as an expert in psychosocial and behavioral problems.

What do we technically understand by mobbing and what are its main variants according to your way of classifying them?

First of all, I would like to point out that mobbing is a situation where one person attacks the dignity of another and creates an intimidating, humiliating or offensive environment through undesirable behavior. This would be a definition of harassment in general, and when we speak of mobbing in particular, we are referring to the set of hostile behaviors that occur within the work environment and negatively affect the emotional state of a worker, even endangering his or her integrity.

In order for us to speak of mobbing, the following three features must be met: the behavior must have a duration in time (some authors speak of a minimum of six months, but this is relative), repetition of the same (not an isolated event) and occur in an unequal relationship between the two parties to the conflict (it does not necessarily have to do with hierarchy).

In terms of its variants we can classify them according to the people who carry it out and the hierarchical level they occupy within the labor structure of the company: horizontal mobbing (same level) and vertical mobbing (different level, both upwards and downwards).

We can also classify them according to their purpose: perverse mobbing (no work-related purpose, the harasser is a manipulative and seductive person who studies his plan to leave no evidence or witnesses), strategic mobbing (responds to a company strategy to achieve a specific objective), management mobbing (carried out by management and aimed at frightening the workforce into submission), and disciplinary mobbing (company policy to generate fear).

Is it a frequent problem?

The answer is undoubtedly a resounding yes. According to the International Labor Organization more than 1% of workers are victims of workplace harassment in the world, with 75% of the cases being women and 70% of the perpetrators of these abusive behaviors being men. If we stick to our country, Spain, a 2017 study by the Association against Psychological and Moral Harassment in the workplace concluded that in Spain 15% of workers suffer harassment at work.

According to some unions, the companies that accumulate more cases are those with more than 50 workers and are in the industry, health and commerce sectors. I would add that it occurs in both private and public companies, a fact that tends to be masked.

I assume that the data presented here are merely the tip of the iceberg, since this is a taboo subject that is hardly talked about and rarely appears in the media. Most of the victims do not report for fear of losing their jobs and also because of the prejudice of thinking that their image will be damaged; it is as if they feel ashamed or show weakness for declaring themselves to be victims of harassment, thus doubly victimized.

I can conclude by saying that nowadays mobbing is considered a growing global problem, which is largely unknown and underestimated to the same extent.

In general, what are the main motivations of those who harass another person at work?

Part of this question I have already answered in my answer to the first question in the classification I made according to the purpose pursued by the perpetrators of bullying, but it could be added that being a complex behavior and situation we should also take into account the personality traits of the bullies who are usually people with an average profile of low self-esteem, low empathy, authoritarian, poorly educated (in the sense of evolved), with a very questionable ethics and a lot of insecurity.

In contrast, victims tend to be competent, educated, resilient, open, challenging the status quo, and sometimes quite empathetic and attractive. If we put all the above-mentioned ingredients in the same workspace, it will probably produce the perfect storm, first the conflict will break out, and then, unfortunately, the initial conflict will derive in harassment, since it is not solved.

This is often due to the fact that the victim does not initiate actions to solve it and other times, even when they do, they find that the institution not only does nothing to stop it but, on the contrary, sides with the abuser and protects him (they were already protected workers before, with the discrimination that this entails), thus constituting an act of complicity with the aggressor who not only goes unpunished, but will also come out reinforced to continue mistreating at will.

The victim not only does not achieve his or her objective of stopping the mobbing and determining responsibilities, but quite the contrary, with the result that his or her discomfort not only does not diminish but increases. This is why 65% of the victims end up leaving their jobs, as they are left with no other way to put an end to the harassment they are subjected to. A small percentage go to court, but it is estimated that only 1% of judgments are favorable to the victim.

Can mobbing lead to psychological disorders?

I think that not only can mobbing give rise to psychological disorders but it is what always happens, and it is those signals that our body and mind send us, which alert us that we are being affected much more than we would like by the hostile situation in which we are immersed.

At first you try to fight the mobbing with your own resources to minimize the impact it is having on you: you try to play it down, not to focus too much on the negative, you try to reinforce your self-esteem, keep a good mood and, above all, keep a good attitude and not give in to its provocations.

All your efforts are in vain, the situation far from improving, worsens over time and the attacks become even worse. You get worse too, and there comes a time when you can't take it anymore, you take a leave of absence because you can't go on like this and at first you feel better because you have moved away from the focus that is causing your discomfort, then the uncertainty about your future plunges you back into uneasiness.

I know firsthand the drift that victims of mobbing face. Therefore, I can assure you that mobbing causes harmful physical, psychological and social consequences, both in the short and long term. This translates into sleep disorders, nervous system disorders, stomach pain, acidity, gastric ulcers, fatigue, weakness, acute fatigue syndrome, stress, memory loss, irritability, difficulty concentrating, nervous breakdowns and depression. It also damages relationships with co-workers, affects the couple, the social and family environment.

All these consequences are logical, because we are treated in a way that is the opposite of what people need, namely: constant provocation, blocking of initiatives, lack of recognition for the work done, humiliation, isolation...

All this persistent behavior is aimed at destroying the victim when, in reality, we should be working in an environment of respect, encouraging motivation, creativity, personal initiative, collaboration, care and the search for the well-being of workers. For all these reasons, it takes us some time to realize that we are victims of mobbing, because it is difficult for us to recognize ourselves on the negative side, especially when we have not done anything to justify the mistreatment.

To treat all these conditions we have to adopt a multidisciplinary approach: medical, psychological and legal treatment (we have to assert our violated rights).

What can be done from Psychology to combat mobbing from Human Resources departments and other similar bodies in the business world?

Taking into account that, according to my point of view, the ultimate goal of Psychology is none other than to help people who suffer any kind of problem or setback, wherever this discomfort occurs.

In this case it would be the work/business environment, therefore we must provide comfort, hope and support to the sufferer, that is, if we work in the Human Resources departments and we do not want "human" to remain only in the sign on the door of the department, from Psychology we must accompany the sufferer because it places him in a position of helplessness in front of what is happening.

In short, what psychology has to do to combat mobbing in the company is: first recognize the damage caused and act to stop it. Although it may be hard to believe, there are people who still relativize these situations, even denying them and exposing the victims in such a way that we end up seeing them as guilty, not only of their own suffering but of the whole situation they are living through.

We have to study the context, as pointed out by Leyman, a pioneer researcher of mobbing at the end of the last century. In this context we have to take into account several elements such as: the leadership style (lax or authoritarian), the deficiencies in the work design, the scarce ethical principles of the work team and the department... all of them are the origin of many of the situations of harassment at work since an unhealthy atmosphere is created, a toxic environment in the workplace, many times it is the product of a corporate policy based on fear and lies since they are their weapons to consolidate in power.

Other types of leadership, such as transformational and authentic leadership, positive competitiveness, coaching, etc., should be encouraged. It is also necessary to ensure that the bodies in charge of managing mobbing cases act with the maximum guarantees when cases of mobbing arise, as well as monitoring compliance with all occupational health and safety and risk prevention regulations. I would propose that there should be a mediating figure intervening from outside the company to ensure impartiality.

And on a social and cultural level, what changes do you think would be necessary to further limit the incidence of this kind of attack?

I like this question very much because its content implies a philosophy aimed at tackling these painful situations. The first and foremost thing is to become aware that mobbing is a serious matter and that it can be fatal, even ending the life of the person who suffers it. Therefore, we must take action on the matter and not look the other way as those responsible for remedying it usually do.

As this is a type of violence against people, I think it should be treated in a similar way to other types of violence such as terrorism or gender violence, developing an organic law that articulates in a multidisciplinary way all this problem and implement a series of measures and actions from the base to train citizens in criteria of respect and against any abuse and when there is a case can be reported freely without fear that they do not believe you, disqualifying you even more and nothing is fixed, but on the contrary be subject to punishment in the form of reprisals.

Finally, I advocate reducing bureaucracy and simplifying judicial processes so that victims are encouraged to file complaints and move away from the obscurantism in which we find ourselves.