When Things Move In Opposite Directions: Reverse Mobbing & Turkish Law Analysis

Intruduction

Initially used to describe a behaviour pattern in birds, it was not until the 1980s that the term mobbing was first applied to workplace situations. Mobbing falls under the wider category of psychological violence at work, which is defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO) as the “intentional use of power, including threat of physical force, against another person or group that can result in harm to physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development. [It] includes verbal abuse, bullying/mobbing, harassment, and threats.”¹

It is often hard to detect mobbing since there is only a fine line between acceptable and inappropriate behaviour. The line becomes blurrier as different personality types in the workplace, and cultural norms around work come into play. However, a classic example of mobbing is systematic inappropriate behaviour towards employees or subordinates, aimed at forcing them to resign so that employers avoid facing