Overcoming Mobbing: A Recovery Guide for Workplace Aggression and Bullying

257 Pages·2014·0.743 MB·English

by  Maureen Duffy, Len Sperry

Overcoming Mobbing

Overcoming
Mobbing
A Recovery Guide for
Workplace Aggression and
Bullying
Maureen   Duffy
Len   Sperry
1
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Duffy, Maureen P.
Overcoming mobbing : a recovery guide for workplace aggression and bullying / Maureen
Duffy, Len Sperry.—1 Edition.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978–0–19–992955–9 (hardback : alk.
paper) 1. Bullying. 2. Harassment. 3. Bullying—Prevention. I. Sperry,
Len. II. Title.
BF637.B85.D856 2014
302.3′5—dc23
2013024077
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To our life partners, Patrick and Patti
For everything

Contents
Foreword by Gary Namie, PhD i x
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xix
one Mobbing Is Not Bullying 1
two Ganging Up in Workplaces 19
three H ow Mobbing Happens 37
four W hat It’s Like to Be Mobbed 55
five H ow Mobbing Affects Health
and Well-Being 75
six Mobbing Has Multiple Victims 95
seven R ecovering from Mobbing 115
viii | Contents
eight M obbing Recovery Tools 143
nine T he Healthy Workplace 163
ten Toward a Better, Mobbing-Free Future 181
appendix Helpful Websites about Mobbing,
Bullying, Trauma, and Related Topics 195
Notes 201
Index 219
Foreword
Let me start with a confession. This is the book Ruth and I should
have written years ago. We last revised our self-help book for tar-
gets of workplace bullying in 2009. Now comes this masterpiece by
Maureen Duffy and Len Sperry, the essential guide for anyone inter-
ested in why and how workplace abuse happens and how to get past
it in their lives.
Readers, you are in good hands. The information between the
covers is absolutely spot-on. You can place your trust in these two
authors. And, for a bonus, organizations get advice, too. The authors’
trustworthiness derives from 30 years of immersion as clinicians
and consultants dealing with mental health, organizational issues,
and workplace health and aggression and caring for vulnerable for-
mer employees who experienced the mistreatment so thoroughly
described in these pages.
Practical is the adjective that best describes this book. Though it
is rich in citations and relies on science, applicability to real lives,
real families, and real organizations jumps off the pages. It tackles
an admittedly complex subject with an accessible writing style that
showcases illustrations, summary lists, and tables. Points are driven
home artfully with compassion for victims present throughout.
What makes this book a remarkable work is the seamless marriage
between the disciplines of clinical psychology, social psychology, and