Mobbing in the Workplace - a danger for us?

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B19

Very illuminating use of the word normative.

B19, so to clarify, are you asking whether a person who wants to be “cured” of autism is knowingly or unknowingly asking for integration with the hive-mind of the neuronormative (or neuro-prevalent) planet?

And whether being free of autism would mean being incorporated back into the hive? ("Back" being locative, not necessarily implying one was there to begin with.)

Yes, it was an idle speculation that flitted through my mind.

My apologies though for a sidetrack that offers little if anything to the thread's central topic!

Hijacking your own thread, eh?

I don't understand mobbing but it seems to me it may not be about trying to hurt rather it's about seeing different as a threat that needs to be eliminated. The people doing it, unfortunately, seem like they believe they are acting as necessary.

The central thing I have taken from the research links is that mobbing is intentional psychological violence, perpetrated consciously on a target victim. The research also stresses that the violence seems unrelated to the target's personal characteristics. It usually starts with a trigger incident (according to the researchers). If you have the time, the last link I posted (on this page?) is very informative. The people involve know what they are doing and what they are part of. They want to harm. And they do, and how...

I found that I posed a threat to my less able but more accessible peers. I expect consistency which sometimes comes across as not being user friendly and can be an achilles heel in a commercial organisation driven by team think and popular but not so able managers. Business owners are encumbered with the need to have a happy hive and will sacrifice a high achiever where this is at risk through agitation.

The Machine desires interchangeable parts. A unique piece, however good, is more costly and harder to replace than a common interchangeable part.

Businesses are generally quite imprecise. If it works, its ok is what underpins most businesses around the world. The nerd comes into his or her own in IT where accuracy is essential. What I am presently doing also requires that accuracy to prosper (and is lacking hence the high jinks on the global markets from time to time.)

These are the skills autistics should be targetting and the areas we want to excel in. Only then will we take our rightful place on this planet..;which is in leading. Without a dose of objectivity from competent employers for example, we will never have good workplaces.

The article I read actually said that *complex* PTSD wasn't in the DSM.
The reason I focused on this rather than PTSD was purely on the fact that *complex* PTSD (in that article) emphasised *extended periods of stress" as opposed to PTSD which tends to be the result of a short term emotional trauma such as rape...(according to the article)...

Leymann "discovered" PTSD was probably an appropriate diagnosis for 95%...

"Leymann discovered in the early 1990s that
persons who have been mobbed may “in their reactions be compared
with those accounted for in a Norwegian study concerning raped
The Workplace Mobbing of
Highly Gifted Adults
133 Advanced Development Journal
women,” i.e., that “post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is probably the
correct psychiatric and psychological diagnosis for approximately 95%
of the subjected individuals” (Leymann & Gustafsson, 1996, pp. 272,
252)."
http://www.kwesthues.com/Kotleras-mobbing2011.pdf

Some of the studies and related commentary say that the target is typically a very high functioning, capable individual who has a proven record of superior achievement within the workplace. I think I can say that applied to my situation. All went fine until the whistle blowing.

My experience of being mobbed seems to have been a text book example - it happened in exactly the way those reviews described, even down to being prohibited from speaking. If I said the first word of a sentence, the instigating mobber would say immediately "you can shut up, we've heard enough from you" - when I hadn't said anything. He encouraged all the others to converse constantly. If I persisted, he would jab me sharply with his finger in my chest, just above my breasts and yell abuse into my face at very close distance (a few inches) stare at my eyes and snarl, "You will do what I say you can do". If I tried to remove myself from the situation he would scream "Did I say you could move? I haven't finished with you yet girlie". If I needed a flight to do a presentation, the admin would say they had booked it when they hadn't, trying to set me up to arrive at the airport and find I had no seat/ticket. Then they would then deny (lie) that I had never asked them to arrange my flights. (I guessed they would try that trick and actually booked the flights myself ). The main instigator of the mobbing - Mr Hostile Power Tripper - would creep up behind me unheard in my office and then thrust his head suddenly over my shoulder to see what I was writing (my work involved a lot of writing) to "make sure that it is work related activity". He would then pick up my personal diary (which I recorded appointments in and basically reminders and innocuous stuff) and read it.

These kinds of things (and many more) happened only to me day in and day out for weeks. One night I was in the office alone - all the others had gone home, I was sitting in my own office staring out the window into the night. I wanted to go home but I couldn't summon the will nor energy to move. I was worn out, psychologically and emotionally. I knew I would still be sitting there in the morning, if I didn't reach out to a safe person; I didn't trust myself to drive home safely. I rang someone I knew fairly well from periodic professional encounters which had gone well (unrelated to this toxic workplace) and described where I was and what had happened and my response of this energy collapse. He came to help me, listened to me, cooked me dinner at his place and drove me home. He didn't really understand what was happening to me (and I downplayed what had happened out of fear he wouldn't believe me and would lose respect for me, and no longer ask me to present papers for him at conferences). He concluded that perhaps it was a case of too much "all work and no play" that had got to me, and I really should make an effort to see films more often. It was kindly meant advice, but it was wrong.

I have never spoken nor written about this mobbing before not even to friends nor family. I was totally alone with it. All that kept me going was faith that the "truth will out" eventually, and knowing that I had done nothing wrong, had acted ethically and honestly. I think that helped a lot - however much they mobbed me, I knew I was not powerless. They were stupid not to realise that I would seek legal remedies because dealing with legal things was part of my job there, and I had attended law school as a post-graduate.

So I didn't feel the powerlessness to the extent perhaps of some others here, but that didn't ease the impact of the hurt and psychological violence, the physical menacing, the endless snares set by these hateful, obstructive, hostile people. I was mobbed by 6 people, two of them very powerful in terms of government appointments to high positions, the other four their minions. Two other people in this small commissioner workplace who recognised what was happening refused to take part in it and eventually joined me as witnesses at the employment court. They terminated their jobs voluntarily as they knew they would be mobbed next otherwise, and left as soon as it was apparent to the mobbers that these two 'bystanders' were actually supporting and agreeing with me. That restored some of my faith in human nature, and they invited me to their homes for meals and relaxing times, and sometimes we dined out. This was very therapeutic, because they offered so much validation about these mobbing events - and validation is the quintessential thing PTSD survivors need. They told me that they thought it was even worse than I thought..

Mine is a pretty typical history except for the helpers coming forward later on after I had left work there. I read for hours last night. The sameness of experiences was astonishing.

Some are simply realists...

B19

That was quite troubling.

It never ceases to amaze me, the depths to which people will go for quite obscure reasons. I hope things are on the mend.

Or a pet reptile...

"When we are out of control with rage, it is our reptilian brain overriding our rational brain components. If someone says that they reacted with their heart instead of their head. What they really mean is that they conceded to their primitive emotions (the reptilian brain based) as opposed to the calculations of the rational part of the brain. "
http://www.crystalinks.com/reptilianbrain.html

Mobbing seems to engage/embrace this reptilian brain with it's inherent tribalistic component...

Which makes me wonder why there aren't more case studies on mobbing-- my experience is that 90% of humanity uses logical thinking about 10% of the time, whilst the other 10% uses it 90% of the time. There seems to be no middle ground.

If you feel it would be therapeutic, please feel welcome to tell your stories here, as I have done. I found it helpful to speak out for the first time and end the silence after keeping these atrocities to myself for 18 years, having never spoken of it before to anyone, not even my closet friends and family. I am so glad that the silence has now ended and I not carrying this alone anymore. It has been tremendously liberating. I stayed silent for so long because of the fear of not being believed. Yet I have received lovely private messages demonstrating that belief.
Such a good experience.

So- can we have more stories?