Mobbing – how to recognise and prevent it?

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​by Klaudia Kamińska-Kiempa

15 May 2025

Pursuant to Article 94(3) of the Polish Labour Code (LC)  mobbing (a.k.a. workplace bullying) means any actions or behaviour relating to or directed against an employee, consisting of persistent and long-lasting harassment or intimidation of the employee, thus leading to the employee underestimating his or her professional capabilities, as well as resulting in or aimed at humiliating or ridiculing the employee, isolating him or her or eliminating him or her from a work team. 

Mobbing definition and its implications​

In the context of the definition which requires that harassment or intimidation be persistent, long-lasting and leading to the underestimating of professional capabilities, and aimed at humiliating, ridiculing, isolating or eliminating a team member, not every behaviour qualifies as mobbing even if you find it reprehensible or against social norms. 

Not every reprehensible conduct equals mobbing

Our experience shows that employees and employers alike often struggle to tell mobbing from a behaviour that does not meet statutory criteria of workplace bullying. This, in turn, often leads to lawsuits filed by (former) employees claiming to have suffered from mobbing. Then, the trial reveals that the conduct in question was – whether subjectively or even objectively – indeed reprehensible but the court cannot declare it a case of mobbing due to the absence of e.g. persistence or long duration.

Employer's role in mobbing prevention

A major challenge for employers is to pay special attention to educational campaigns on mobbing among employees – both rank-and-file ones and executives. This is not just about designing an effective and functional mobbing prevention procedure (which is an employer's obligation, by the way), as only such makes sense, but also about extensive training to help employees understand what mobbing is about. Such awareness among employees will raise the enterprise as a community people to a whole new level of functioning and will let the employer better manage the risk posed by workplace bullying.

Moreover, employer's preventive actions (e.g. a tailored mobbing prevention policy, training in this area) will demonstrate that the employer has taken real steps to counteract mobbing and thus may escape liability, while the actual perpetrator will be punished. 

If you have questions or doubts about workplace bullying, contact our experts.