Mobbing?
What is Mobbing?
I borrowed this photo from the website of Dorothy Dalton
In Germany there is no precise legal definition, which is why it is remarkable, that the authors of all of the legal briefs spread to defame me, claimed that I had falsely accused the persons collaborating in the memo of "mobbing."
For the sake of argument I like the definition Dorothy Dalton offers on her website:
Mobbing is emotional abuse by stealth in an organisation or community.
I also like etymology.
Mob as a noun comes from the Latin mobile vulgus , mobile meaning " movable, mobile" and vulgus meaning "fickle or common"; thus mobile vulgus "fickle common people" (the Latin phrase is attested c. 1600 in English), from the 1680s, a slang shortening of mobile, mobility - mob - came to mean "disorderly part of the population, rabble, common mass, the multitude, especially when rude or disorderly; a riotous assemblage," (in the 1670s, probably with a conscious play on nobility),
In short, a mob is a group of people inciting disorder.
The memo documents that seven people - 2 board members, 3 department heads (Corporate Banking, Legal and Human Ressources) as well as a team leader and an employee in Human Ressources - collaborated. Later, they hired a lawyer - a person commonly referred to in English as a fixer. These eight people had the authority to use and/or misuse the resources of a municipal institution. These eight people had the obligation to protect and the authority to undermine German democracy
Did the eight use the institutional ressources in the interests of the municipality?
Let us be clear here. No company - no Sparkasse - breaks the law. People running companies break laws. The Sparkasse has some 1.400 employees, Only five of them - the board members and department heads - had the power and authority to speak for the rest. The privileges accorded these individuals come with responsibility.
Did these five men use the municipal authority they were entrusted with responsibly?
Mobbing, crying wolf, wirtchhunts, killing the messenger, wagging the dog - belong to the many metaphors for lying and covering up the truth to get and maintain power. Depending on the context the actions have many objective names - slander, propaganda, perjury, FUD. At the end of the day it all comes down to the methodical use of false and misleading information as a form of destructive power.
There are many forms of power.
Destruction is the lowest form.
Any child can destroy things and most try it, because it gives the child a brief sense of power.
Creation is the highest form of power.
The power to create has to be nurtured and developed to unfold.
Which form of power did five men with decsion making authority in the Sparkasse use against a female subordinate and why?
Fear, privilege, something else?
Each of the gentlemen probably has a different justification for his actions. Maybe one day they will share their motivations and fill in the why. I invite them to do so. Until then, let's look at the how - THE METHOD.