Mobbing is ...

Mobbing involves a progressive attack on a target, which may initially be instigated by one or two individuals. Then the assault on the individual develops by bringing other people to support the denigration of the person. This will include the organisation's management which collaborates, actively or through lack of action, to have the target evicted, via a process of ostracisation, lies, rumour mongering and so on.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with workplace mobbing, I will explain this in detail in a later blog. I am currently reading an excellent book: Overcoming Mobbing: A Recovery Guide for Workplace Aggression and Bullying, by Duffy, M. & Sperry, L. (2013) which I highly recommend.

I have become aware that the mobbing of Founder/Charity Leaders is not uncommon and sadly I know of another Charity Founder/CEO who also had a stress-related seizure because of the treatment she was subjected to by the Charity's Board of Trustees. It appears that these violent psychological attacks by non-profit organisations are swept under the carpet probably, as in my case, using a policy of silence, combined with the absence of an adequate structure of accountability.  Alternatively their attacks are presented as an issue of "Founders Syndrome" whereby the Founder is used as a scapegoat for the dysfunction of the management team. I will share an excellent article which discusses the issue of Founder Syndrome in the later blog.

Meanwhile, I'd like to share some quotes regarding workplace bullying in the not-profit-sector, and have provided the relevant links to the full articles.

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"Workplace bullying in nonprofit organizations is far more prevalent than one might believe. We tend to think they’re organized by good people to advance a cause or perform a service for the community. All it takes is one or two motivated board members to ruin somebody’s career. For one thing, nonprofit executives tend to be women and board members tend to be men. What’s more non-profit boards face nearly no accountability. There are no owners, partners, or stock holders. And there is very little government oversight. Add in employer-centric employment laws, board members have de facto double “0″ status.  Those one or two motivated enemies on the board of directors can destroy an employee with impunity." - http://www.nblsc.org/workplace-bullying-in-nonprofit-organizations/

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"Board bullying,” as I call it, is one of the largely unexplored aspects of workplace bullying. I do not know how frequent it is, and I have not yet found any research literature on the topic. (Readers, if you know of any studies, please share in the comments!) And yet I know it is real. I suspect it is more prevalent in the non-profit sector than in the business sector, but that impression may be unduly influenced by the fact that I’ve spent much of my career and volunteer service in non-profit organizations." - http://newworkplace.wordpress.com/2011/08/25/when-the-bullying-comes-from-a-board-member/

Why is a particular person targeted?

A couple of inspiring twitter quotes from Celebrities Unite @URBullyProof:

"Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life, but define yourself.”

"Use what you've been through as fuel, believe in yourself and be unstoppable"



... and in the words of Martin Luther King Jnr:

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is 'What are you doing for others'?'"

On my journey of recovery from workplace bullying and mobbing, I have had an overwhelming need to try to make sense of what happened to me and why. It has been a steep learning curve and perhaps the key lessons for me have been:

- that many people do not share the same core values as me, i.e. the importance of caring for others, of honesty, and of justice. This came as a great shock as I had expected the people I worked with to share these values and to have care and respect towards me.

- that there are many more people in our world who are primarily ego-driven and/or with mental health issues, than I had realised. 

- that if you have been bullied, you are NOT TO BLAME and there is NO SHAME

- Bullying speaks volumes about the bully, not about the target. 


Before continuing with my story, I'd like to share some of what I have learnt as these may help you to understand why events unfolded in the way they did. 

Why is a particular person targeted?

Often it is because of the Tall Poppy Syndrome - the tendancy to criticise highly successful people (ie, tall poppies), and 'cut them down'. (Urbandictionary.com)

From www.workplacebullying.org: 

"Most likely, you were targeted (for reasons the instigator may or may not have known) because you posed a "threat" to him or her. The perception of threat is entirely in his/her mind, but it is what he/she feels and believes."

"WBI research findings from our year 2000 study and conversations with thousands of targets have confirmed that targets appear to be the veteran and most skilled person in the workgroup."

"Targets are independent. They refuse to be subservient. Bullies seek to enslave targets. When targets take steps to preserve their dignity, their right to be treated with respect, bullies escalate their campaigns of hatred and intimidation to wrest control of the target's work from the target."

Targets are more technically skilled than their bullies. They are the "go-to" veteran workers to whom new employees turn for guidance. Insecure bosses and co-workers can't stand to share credit for the recognition of talent. Bully bosses steal credit from skilled targets."

Stress-related seizure

My seizure occurred in May 2011 in a busy town centre and was witnessed by my husband, who fortunately caught me as I fell to the ground.  A neurologist has confirmed in writing that the workplace stress I was under was likely to be a significant contributory factor in this occurring. Unfortunately as my husband's first wife died of a seizure when his two daughters were 2 and 4 years old, my husband experienced a post-traumatic reaction in response to my seizure, fearful I too was going to die. As a result, my husband was unable to continue working and took early retirement at the end of December 2011.

Following the seizure, I had to undergo numerous hospital tests over months including CT scans, MRI scans etc. and this also added to the stress as we waited to find out whether I had an underlying problem such as epilepsy, a brain tumour or heart condition.  The results fortunately were negative and a diagnosis of an anoxic seizure was confirmed.  Even after my seizure, staff (a few of whom I had considered personal friends) were not allowed even to send me get well messages, a card or flowers.  This was deeply hurtful and added immensely to my distress.  My husband asked the trustees to lift the ban on communication between me and the charity staff but the trustees refused. 

The ostracisation continued for two months. I still had no information in writing about the allegation against me, still no procedures had been followed and I continued to be denied any opportunity to defend myself, I continued to not understand why I was being ostracized nor why I was being treated in such an inhumane way. In a later blog I will explain a little about the allegation but it is my belief that the trustees took the opportunity of using the malicious allegation as a means to remove me as the founder leader of the charity.  Sadly I have discovered that it is a relatively common occurence for Charity Founder Leaders to be unceremoniously and aggressively removed by Charity Board of Trustees.   

Towards the end of July 2011 shortly after receiving the results of my numerous hospital tests, the Board of Trustees terminated my secondment without any discussion with me.

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Thank you for reading my blog. Please feel free to offer your thoughts and suggestions. 

Target of Workplace Bullying & Mobbing

It is relatively recently that I have realised I was the target of workplace bullying and workplace mobbing. This was confirmed when I realised I can confidently tick seven of the nine negative bullying behaviours, identified by the UK government's Health & Safety Executive website (www.hse.gov.uk) as having been used against me by the charity's Board of Trustees. The website states:

"There is no legal definition of workplace bullying. However, experts believe that bullying involves negative behaviour being targeted at an individual, or individuals, repeatedly and persistently over time. Negative behaviour includes: Ignoring or excluding you - Giving you unachievable tasks or ’setting you up to fail' - Spreading malicious rumours or gossip - Giving you meaningless tasks or unpleasant jobs - Making belittling remarks - Undermining your integrity - Withholding information deliberately - Making you look stupid in public - Undervaluing your contribution –not giving credit where it is due

Following a malicious unfounded complaint being made against me by a person with a very complex personality, the Board of Trustees failed to follow their own procedures and I was sent home, never to return to work again. No disciplinary hearing was held, a policy of silence was adopted and I was ostracised by all staff and trustees for a two month period on the instruction of the Chair of a trustees and the Treasurer. My numerous requests for meetings were ignored, as was my request to take out an informal grievance because of the treatment I was receiving. No information about the allegation was provided to me in writing and I was at a complete loss in making any sense of what was happening to me. I felt like I was being treated as though I had committed the most heinous of crimes, and yet I knew I had not done anything wrong. The stress was overwhelming and for the first time in my life I experienced panic attacks. After 4 weeks of complete ostracisation, no information, no means of having a voice and defending myself, I experienced a stress-related anoxic seizure, at which point my and my husband's world collapsed completely.