The 5 Differences Between Bullying and Mobbing (Explained)

Unfortunately, bullying continues to be a reality in the societies of the most advanced countries. And it is that we have all suffered some type of harassment in our own flesh or, at least we have seen how someone from our close circle suffered it. And it is that there are times that some people, moved by evil, harass other people who become victims of this form of stalking.

Harassment means stalking a person repeatedly, undermining their individual freedom as a person and altering in a more or less serious way their normal day-to-day development. Harassment is based on toxic attitudes and harmful behaviors presented by the harasser to exercise control over his victim or victims.

Now, we also know that harassment can take many different forms: sexual harassment, physical harassment, psychological harassment, cyberbullying, racial harassment, property harassment, police harassment, power harassment, etc. But, surely, the two forms of harassment that, unfortunately, are most famous for their high presence in society are bullying and mobbing.

These two forms of harassment, although they have some points in common and although we often confuse them, they occur in very different contexts. And it is that in short, bullying is bullying; and mobbing, workplace harassment. But as this differentiation contains many more nuances, in today's article we are going to dissect the nature of both terms and present, in the form of key points, the main differences between bullying and mobbing.

What is bullying? And the mobbing?

Before going into depth and analyzing the differences between both forms of bullying, it is very interesting and important that we put ourselves in context and understand, individually, what each one of them consists of. Therefore, below we are going to define exactly what is bullying and what is mobbing. Let us begin.

Bullying: what is it?

Bullying is any form of harassment that occurs in the context of an educational center. Thus, being also known as bullying, it takes place in schools, institutes and, to a lesser extent, universities. It is about any form of psychological, verbal or physical abuse that happens between students and students of the same center.

In order for it to be considered bullying, a stalker (or what is worse and more frequent, a group of stalkers) begins to stalk, harass and psychologically and / or physically mistreat a victim who is interpreted by him or them as an "easy prey ”. Bullying is a form of school violence that relies on these repeated bullying behaviors in order to intimidate the victim.

We are facing a real social problem, since statistics show that 1 in 3 students suffer or will suffer bullying throughout their academic life. And these already dire figures turn into something horrible when we discover that, each year in the world, some 200,000 children and young people commit suicide because of this bullying.

As a general rule, the most common victim profile (although the difference is slight) is that of girls entering adolescence. But be that as it may, bullies often look for victims who present some functional diversity (such as autism or Down syndrome), who are physically weak, who have few friends, who belong to an ethnic, religious or sexual orientation minority, who are introverted , etc. Profiles that know that they will be easy to humiliate, demoralize, isolate and force to be obedient.

Bullying can occur both in the classroom and in spaces linked to the educational center (especially in the schoolyard), as well as in, as is unfortunately common today, social networks, constituting what is known as cyberbullying. Be that as it may, this bullying is tremendously destructive for the victim, who lives in terror at the idea of ​​going to school and who can be left with lifelong psychological consequences.

Mobbing: what is it?

Mobbing is any form of harassment that occurs in the context of a workplace. Thus, being also known as workplace harassment, it takes place within companies and in any place where a person who develops his professional activity is in contact with other workers. It is, in short, the harassment that we can suffer in our workplace.

This mobbing, tremendously destructive both for the victim and for the productivity of the company, consists of stalking a person in their work environment. The harasser (or group of harassers) despises, discourages, exercises unwarranted psychological violence and produces fear on an employee inside or outside of work, with harassing behaviors that occur for a long time.

We are facing a reality that, according to official figures from the European Union, affects 9% of the workforce to a greater or lesser extent. That is to say, practically 1 in 10 workers suffers workplace harassment or mobbing, being victims of repeated stalking and toxic behaviors throughout their working hours.

Depending on who carries out this harassment and on which victim does it, mobbing can be horizontal (between co-workers, that is, between employees who occupy the same hierarchical rank in the company), vertical ascending (subordinates psychologically attack a superior ) or vertically descending (a superior harasses one or more of his subordinates). As we can see, it can occur in any stratum of a company.

The causes behind this mobbing are very varied. They can range from company strategies for an employee to "voluntarily" leave the job (and thus not have to pay compensation), personal conflicts between employees, as an action to increase the productivity of a team through fear , as "exemplary punishment" to punish behaviors, on the grounds of discrimination (by sex, ethnicity, religion, age ...), as a sign of superiority, etc. Be that as it may, it is enough to stay with the idea that mobbing is harassment that takes place in the workplace.

How are bullying and mobbing different?

After having defined both forms of harassment, surely the differences between bullying and mobbing have become more than clear. Even so, in case you need (or simply want) to have the information with a more visual character, we have prepared the following selection of the main differences between mobbing and bullying in the form of key points. Let us begin.

1. Bullying is bullying; mobbing, workplace harassment

The key difference and definitely the one you should stick with. Bullying is a form of harassment that takes place in the context of the academic environment, which is why it occurs within schools, institutes and even universities. It is a form of bullying in which one or more bullies stalk a victim inside the classroom or in the annexes of the center, such as the schoolyard.

On the other hand, mobbing is a form of harassment that takes place in the context of the professional environment.. And it is a question of workplace harassment in which colleagues, subordinates or superiors of a victim exercise psychological harassment on it. This harassment of workers occurs both inside the workplace and outside.

2. Bullying is more frequent than mobbing

Both forms of harassment are worryingly frequent, but the truth is that statistics indicate that bullying is more common than workplace bullying. And it is that while 1 in 10 workers suffers or will suffer mobbing (which is obviously a lot), it is estimated that 1 in 3 children and young people suffer bullying throughout their academic life.

3. The victim of bullying is always someone perceived as weak; in mobbing, it is usually the opposite

The profile of the victim of bullying is always that of a boy or girl (more frequently) who is perceived by bullies as someone weak, either because they have some functional diversity, they are very introverted, they belong to a minority, they are usually alone or because he has tastes that are out of the ordinary. The one who exercises bullying will always go after an “easy prey” over whom he can easily exercise his physical superiority. But, yes, these "brave" usually do group bullying.

In mobbing, the profile of the victim is usually the opposite. Except for some cases, workplace harassment is suffered precisely by the best employees. Those most hard-working and talented. They end up being the focus of envies or perceived as threats, something that triggers workplace harassment to get them to leave the company.

4. Bullying occurs between peers; mobbing, not always

Bullying always occurs between peers, whether they are from the same class or from another. But in the end, bullying occurs in the same hierarchical range: that of students. In the case of mobbing, things are different. And it is that although it can occur between colleagues (horizontal mobbing), it can also occur between different hierarchical ranks. This is how we have ascending vertical mobbing (subordinates psychologically attack a superior) and descending vertical mobbing (a superior harasses his subordinates).

5. Bullying happens inside the school; mobbing does not always occur at work

Cyberbullying aside, bullying always happens inside the school, be it in classrooms or on the playground. But these harassing behaviors do not continue after school hours, because each child, when he is with his parents, makes it seem that nothing has happened. Both the stalker and the victim. Instead, mobbing continues to occur after work hours, with toxic attitudes such as voiding, not inviting to meetings, harassing off the job, etc.