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The world is a dangerous place,
not because of those who do evil, but because of those who
look on and do nothing.
~ Albert Einstein
Indifference,
to me, is the epitome of evil.
~ Elie Wiesel
You take my life when you do take the means
whereby I live.
~ William Shakespear, The Merchant of Venice.
Act iv. Sc. 1
We must always
take sides.
Neutrality helps
the oppressor,
never the victim.
Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
~ Elie Wiesel
One man can
make a difference,
and every man should try.
~ John F. Kennedy
There may be times when we are powerless
to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when
we fail to protest.
~ Elie Wiesel
We just come to work here, we don't come to die.
~ Harry Stamper, Longshoreman, Musician
Please
forward this email
to your friends,
to your family,
to co-workers,
to anyone
you care about.
Thank You.
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This email is not spam. You have received
this email because it was sent to you by a friend, family
member or colleague. It is about a vicious and sometimes deadly
type of workplace bullying known as mobbing.
What is mobbing?
"In the early 1980s, a Swedish psychologist named Heinz
Leymann identified a grave threat to health and safety in
what appear to be the healthiest, safest workplaces in the
world. ... he labeled the distinct menace he had found with
an English word: mobbing. ...
Mobbing can be understood as the stressor to beat
all stressors. It is an impassioned, collective campaign
by co-workers to exclude, punish, and humiliate a targeted
worker. Initiated most often by a person in a position of
power or influence, mobbing is a desperate urge to crush and
eliminate the target. The urge travels through the workplace
like a virus, infecting one person after another. The target
comes to be viewed as absolutely abhorrent, with no redeeming
qualities, outside the circle of acceptance and respectability,
deserving only of contempt. As the campaign proceeds, a steadily
larger range of hostile ploys and communications comes to
be seen as legitimate. ...
Not infrequently, mobbing spelled the end of the
target’s career, marriage, health, and livelihood.
From a study of circumstances surrounding suicides in Sweden,
Leymann estimated that about twelve percent of people
who take their own lives have recently been mobbed at work."
~ Kenneth Westhues, Professor of Sociology
Not only does mobbing often result in suicide, in extreme
cases once a target has been abused beyond their breaking
point it can end with incidents of workplace violence and
homicide.
Why has this email campaign been created?
I experienced the phenomenon of mobbing first-hand while
employed at a notoriously abusive Canadian newspaper. The
bullying I was subjected to went on for many years, but I
couldn't put a name to what was happening. Most people learn
about mobbing only after it is too late and serious damage
has already been done. Due to this creeping, cumulative characteristic
of mobbing it is referred to in Europe as "the slow poison".
In my own case, a 22 year career was systematically destroyed
and I was eventually left disabled and financially ruined.
My family and I have been devastated and, as a direct consequence,
we have since also been rendered homeless. Mobbing is a nightmarish
ordeal, a downward spiral from which some are never able to
recover.
As Prof. Leymann explains, "The unwieldy social situation
for these individuals consists not only of severe psychological
trauma but of an extremely prolonged stress condition that
seriously threatens the individual's socio-economic existence.
Torn out of their social network, the majority of
mobbing victims face the threat of early retirement, with
permanent psychological damage."
As a result of these experiences with workplace bullies I
became determined to do what I could to raise awareness about
mobbing and so I decided to create mobbing.ca
(http://mobbing.ca),
a website dedicated to providing information and resources
to help others who have been targeted.
This is why I have started this email campaign.
Everyone needs to know about mobbing; what it is, how it happens,
its devastating consequences and what to do if it is happening
to you, but I need your help to get the word out.
What can you do to help?
Too many lives have been destroyed, and even lost, as a result
of workplace mobbing. It is time to say enough is enough.
Awareness and education are the first steps to dealing with
this problem. I ask that you forward this email to
everyone you care about. You may not be experiencing
this abuse yourself but someone you know may be suffering
in silence, or someone they know is being impacted by mobbing
not realizing the danger they are in. If each of us does our
part to help spread the word about workplace bullying needless
suffering and death can be averted.
Thank you for taking the time to read this email and for
forwarding it to everyone you know. I would also encourage
you to visit mobbing.ca
(http://mobbing.ca)
to learn more about workplace bullying and the mobbing phenomenon.
I welcome your feedback, please contact me at the email address
below.
Sincerely,
Anton Hout
Webmaster, mobbing.ca
Website: http://mobbing.ca
Email: mobbing.ca@gmail.com
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