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A Quiet War on Competence

      

        BY Luméa Team •         PUBLISHED ON July 4, 2025 •         {{READING_TIME}} MIN READ       

    

  

  

    

             

                        

      

        

Key Takeaways

                

          
• High performers are often targeted not for weakness, but for strengths like competence and integrity, which threaten insecure colleagues (the "Tall Poppy Syndrome").
• Mobbing is a collective attack ("bullying on steroids") using covert tactics like sabotage and rumor-spreading, making it hard to prove.
• Toxic organizational cultures—those with poor leadership, low psychological safety, and a focus on ruthless competition—are fertile ground for mobbing.
• Combating mobbing requires a two-front strategy: personal defense (documentation, boundary setting) for the target and systemic organizational reform.
        

              

      

        

Article Contents

        

      

                   

        

          Part 1           The Anatomy of a Modern Witch Hunt         

        

          

To comprehend the assault on high performers, one must first understand the nature of the weapon being used. It is not the simple cudgel of a lone bully but the sophisticated, coordinated attack of a mob. This section deconstructs the phenomenon, moving from its definition to the profiles of its key actors: the target and the aggressors.

       

From Bully to Mob: Bullying on Steroids

       

While no single legal definition of workplace bullying exists, it is broadly understood as unwanted behavior from a person or group that is offensive, intimidating, malicious, or an abuse of power that humiliates and harms an individual. This behavior can be a one-off incident or a sustained pattern, but it often lacks the coordinated, multi-person dynamic that defines its more pernicious cousin: mobbing.

       

Mobbing is, as one analysis describes it, "bullying on steroids". The term was first applied to the workplace by the Swedish researcher Heinz Leymann, who identified it as a form of psychological terror involving a group of individuals ganging up on a single target. The key differentiator is the group dynamic. While a bully can act alone, a mob is a collective. It often features a ringleader who orchestrates a campaign of relational aggression, systematically pitting coworkers against the targeted employee through insinuation, gossip, and social isolation. This collective action is what makes mobbing so insidious. The abuse is distributed among many actors, making it difficult for the victim to pinpoint a single perpetrator and harder for the organization to identify and address than a straightforward one-on-one conflict. The power of the mob lies in its numbers and its ability to create a suffocating, all-encompassing hostile environment from which there is no escape.

       

The Target in the Crosshairs: Targeted for Strength, Not Weakness

       

A persistent myth about bullying is that victims are somehow weak, socially awkward, or underperforming. The research on workplace mobbing shatters this misconception. The targets of these collective attacks are frequently the organization's most valuable employees. They are often highly competent, well-educated, resilient, creative, and ethically principled. They are the "rate-busters" who, through their high performance, implicitly challenge the established group norm of average output and raise the bar for everyone else.

       

The target is often someone who stands out, someone who is different. This difference can manifest as superior productivity, but it can also be tied to identity. Individuals who are women, members of a minority group, or simply possess a stronger ethical compass are more likely to be singled out. Their very presence can disrupt the comfortable, and often mediocre, homogeneity of a workgroup. Furthermore, their integrity and professional naivete can render them uniquely vulnerable. They tend to be ethical, fair, and honorable, and they naively expect the same from others, leaving them unprepared for the kind of covert, politically motivated attacks that characterize mobbing. They are targeted not for their weakness, but for a combination of strengths that the group perceives as a threat.

       

This dynamic reveals a critical truth: the mobbing of a high performer is not a random act of cruelty but a targeted expulsion of a perceived threat to the group's social order. The target's competence is the very reason for the attack, which leads to a strange and self-defeating paradox for the organization. The aggressors are driven to attack the very person who is most valuable, but because that person is so valuable, the attack must be executed with stealth. A direct, overt assault on a "star performer" is risky; it could lead to disciplinary action. Therefore, the mob is compelled to use covert tactics—withholding information, spreading rumors, social isolation, and assigning impossible tasks. These methods are insidious because they are deniable and difficult to prove. The ultimate goal of this covert campaign is to engineer the target's failure, to make the high performer appear incompetent, thereby retroactively justifying the aggression and creating a new, false reality that the mob and a conflict-averse organization can accept.

       

The Psychology of the Pack: Envy, Insecurity, and the Pursuit of Power

       

Research suggests the orchestrated attack on a high performer is powered by a single, corrosive emotion: envy, but not the kind of envy that inspires one to greater heights. Psychology distinguishes between two forms of this emotion: benign envy, which motivates an individual to improve themselves to match the envied person, and malicious envy, which fuels a destructive desire to harm the envied person and diminish their advantage. Workplace mobbing is the operationalization of malicious envy. The goal of the mob is not self-improvement; it is the destruction of the target's success.

       

This malicious envy springs from a deep well of insecurity. Bullies and their followers are often described as profoundly insecure individuals who live in constant fear of being "found out" for their own perceived inadequacies. The high performer's competence acts as a relentless, painful mirror, reflecting the bully's own mediocrity and threatening their fragile sense of status. The attack, therefore, becomes a desperate defense mechanism to shatter that mirror.

       

The act of undermining a more competent person provides a perverse psychological reward. It gives the bully a "sinister rush" and an "intoxicating power fix". This behavior is addictive, reinforcing a false sense of superiority even as it is driven by a profound sense of personal "nothingness". The desire to form groups and enforce social norms is a fundamental human trait, essential for cooperation and survival. Mobbing represents the dark, pathological side of this instinct. The mob uses the tools of community—gossip, social norms, inclusion, and exclusion—not to build a healthy, productive group, but to expel a perceived threat and re-establish a comfortable, if dysfunctional, status quo. It is a perversion of our social instincts, where the group bonds not over a shared purpose, but over a shared animosity.

        

      

             

        

          Part 2           The Ecology of Envy         

        

          

The mobbing of a high performer does not happen in a vacuum. It requires a specific environment—an ecology of envy—to take root and flourish. While individual psychology provides the spark, it is the organizational and cultural context that provides the fuel. This section widens the lens from the individual actors to the workplace cultures and broader societal trends that cultivate cruelty.

       

The Unspoken Rules of the Group: Cutting Down the Tall Poppy

       

One of the most powerful metaphors for understanding mobbing is the "Tall Poppy Syndrome". The term, which gained prominence in Australia and New Zealand, describes the cultural tendency to resent, criticize, and metaphorically "cut down" individuals who stand out through their success and achievements. Its origins are ancient, traced back to the Roman historian Livy's account of the tyrannical king Tarquinius Superbus, who, when asked for advice on securing power, wordlessly went into his garden and swept his stick across the tops of the tallest poppies, lopping off their heads.

       

This is not merely an Antipodean quirk. It is a global phenomenon reflecting a near-universal human tension between celebrating excellence and enforcing egalitarianism. In Scandinavia, it is known as the "Law of Jante," a set of cultural rules that includes the command, "You're not to think you are anything special". In Japan, a common proverb warns, "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down". These cultural scripts reveal a deep-seated human impulse to maintain group cohesion by punishing those who deviate too far from the norm, even when that deviation is in the direction of excellence.

       

This "cutting down" is not applied equally. Research shows that the syndrome disproportionately affects women and people of color. As women achieve higher levels of success, they report receiving more uncivil and undermining treatment in the workplace. In a 2023 survey of over 4,700 working women, a staggering 86.8% felt their achievements had been undermined by others. This phenomenon intersects with racism, as people of color often face hostility and sabotage for defying the low expectations imposed upon them by a biased culture.

       

The Organization as Incubator: Fertile Ground for Toxicity

       

The "Tall Poppy Syndrome" can only thrive in a particular kind of organizational soil. The culture of a company—often described as "the way we do things around here"—can either suppress or actively facilitate bullying and mobbing. Studies have found that specific cultural dimensions are strongly correlated with higher rates of bullying. Organizational cultures that are highly assertive and aggressively performance-oriented, yet have a low sense of "ingroup collectivism" or community, are particularly toxic breeding grounds. In such environments, ruthless competition is encouraged while the social bonds that might temper it are weak.

       

Leadership is the single most important factor in shaping this culture. The most common form of workplace bullying is top-down, perpetrated by managers against their subordinates. When leaders misuse their power, display incivility, or create a culture of fear and intimidation, they are not just failing to prevent bullying; they are actively modeling and sanctioning it. Some analyses suggest that in the name of efficiency and productivity, certain management styles have adopted bullying as a deliberate tactic to increase compliance, a toxic misapplication of neoliberal principles. This is compounded by systemic failures like poor conflict management, chaotic work organization, and the constant stress of organizational change, all of which create an environment ripe for interpersonal conflict.

       

This dynamic exposes a deep-seated hypocrisy within many modern organizations. Companies fill their mission statements with buzzwords like "innovation," "disruption," and "excellence," yet their internal cultures often reward conformity and punish the very people who embody these values. A high performer who takes the company's stated values seriously—by speaking up, challenging the status quo, and excelling—is often punished by the unstated cultural rules: don't rock the boat, don't make others look bad, and don't be too different. This disconnect between stated values and practiced culture creates a deeply cynical environment where the real message is to perform well, but not so well that you upset the delicate social order. This is a profound failure of leadership to align an organization's culture with its strategic goals.

       

The Character of Modern Work: A Wider Malaise

       

The problem of workplace mobbing is not confined to the office walls. It is a symptom of a wider societal malaise. The documented decline in civility across society provides a crucial backdrop. The rise of online aggression, the vitriol of political discourse, and the prevalence of "cancel culture" have eroded the shared norms of respectful disagreement. This broader cultural context makes aggression in the workplace feel more permissible and less deviant. As one study notes, the loss of civility in the workplace mirrors that of society.

       

The very nature of modern ambition also plays a role. We live in a culture that relentlessly celebrates ambition, yet we are often deeply uncomfortable with its manifestations in others, especially our peers. When ambition is defined primarily by external markers—status, prestige, promotions—rather than by internal drivers like mastery and contribution, it inevitably breeds zero-sum competition and malicious envy. The mobbing of a high performer can be seen as a violent reaction against an ambition that is perceived not as a contribution to the collective good, but as a direct threat to the status and standing of others.

       

Finally, the physical and social psychology of the modern office itself can be a contributing factor. The push toward open-plan offices, intended to foster collaboration, can paradoxically create conditions that facilitate mobbing. These environments can inhibit deep, complex work, increase stress through constant noise and distraction, and make employees feel more anonymous and dispensable. The lack of privacy and personal space can heighten psychological arousal and, by making social exclusion more visible and public, turn it into a more potent weapon for the mob. This suggests that the rise of workplace incivility is not an isolated HR issue but is deeply interwoven with a broader crisis of social cohesion. In a healthy, high-trust culture, a high performer is seen as an asset to the group. In a fragmented, low-trust, anomic culture, that same individual is perceived as a threat to the precarious standing of other atomized individuals. Tackling workplace mobbing, therefore, requires not just new policies, but a conscious effort to rebuild the social fabric and norms of decency that have frayed within our institutions and the wider culture.

        

      

             

        

          Part 3           The Mob's Playbook and Its Consequences         

        

          

A Manual for Malice: The Tactics of the Mob

       

The weapons of the mob are primarily psychological and social, chosen for their effectiveness and their deniability. The tactics fall into several key categories:

       

       
• Covert Sabotage: This is the mob's most insidious tool, designed to engineer the target's failure from the shadows. It includes deliberately withholding information that is critical for the target's performance, giving them the "silent treatment," and systematically excluding them from important meetings, email chains, and informal discussions. These actions are difficult to prove as malicious, often dismissed as simple oversights, yet they effectively cripple the target's ability to do their job.
       
• Discrediting and Humiliation: The mob works relentlessly to destroy the target's professional reputation and personal credibility. This is achieved by spreading false rumors and malicious gossip, constantly and unfairly criticizing their work, publicly putting them down in meetings, misrepresenting their accomplishments, and brazenly taking credit for their ideas. The aim is to create a narrative that the target is incompetent and difficult.
       
• Overloading and Undermining: A common and particularly cruel tactic is to assign the target an unmanageable workload or tasks with impossible deadlines, setting them up for inevitable failure. The flip side of this is to assign them trivial or demeaning tasks far below their level of competence, a move designed to humiliate them and signal to the rest of the organization that they are no longer considered valuable.
       
• Gaslighting and Blame-Shifting: When confronted, the mob will deny their actions and engage in gaslighting, a form of psychological manipulation intended to make the target question their own sanity and perception of reality. They will insist the target is "imagining things," is "too sensitive," or is, in fact, the real source of the problem. This tactic is profoundly disorienting and serves to isolate the victim further.
       

       

The mob's initial problem is a truth they cannot accept: the target is more competent than they are. The tactics they employ are a coordinated effort to create a new, false narrative in which the competent target is reframed as incompetent, unstable, and uncooperative.

       

The ultimate goal of this playbook is to rewrite reality. If the target's performance suffers under the strain of sabotage, or if they react with predictable stress and anxiety, the mob can then point to this as "proof" that their campaign was justified all along. It is a vicious, self-fulfilling prophecy where the abuse creates the very conditions that are then used to legitimize it. When an organization fails to intervene, it becomes a willing accomplice in this reality-warping project, often sacrificing its best talent to appease a dysfunctional and destructive faction.

       

The Cost of the Conflict: A Devastating Toll

       

The price of allowing mobbing to fester is catastrophic, for both the individual and the organization.

       

For the targeted individual, the consequences are life-altering. The relentless psychological pressure leads to severe and well-documented health problems, including chronic stress, anxiety, depression, and even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The physical manifestations are also common, ranging from headaches and insomnia to digestive issues and panic attacks. Professionally, their career is often sabotaged. Their reputation is damaged, their confidence is shattered, and many are ultimately forced to leave their jobs. The Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI) reports a staggering 23% resignation rate among victims who are pushed out of their roles.

       

For the organization, the damage is equally severe and multifaceted:

       

       
• Loss of Talent and Productivity: The most immediate cost is the loss of the targeted high performers, the very people the organization can least afford to lose. But the damage extends far beyond the victim. A toxic environment stifles creativity, collaboration, and performance across the entire team. Research suggests that the negative impact of one toxic employee can negate the productivity gains of two superstar performers. Time lost to worrying about incivility, avoiding perpetrators, and dealing with the emotional fallout amounts to a massive drain on productivity, with one estimate putting the daily cost to U.S. organizations in the billions of dollars.
       
• Financial and Legal Risks: The direct financial costs are substantial. Mobbing leads to higher rates of employee turnover, increased absenteeism, and greater use of health benefits. Furthermore, it exposes the organization to significant legal risks. While bullying itself may not always be illegal, it can easily cross the line into illegal harassment and create a hostile work environment, leading to costly lawsuits and settlements.
       
• A Poisoned Culture: Perhaps the most enduring damage is to the organizational culture itself. When mobbing is tolerated, trust is annihilated. Morale plummets, and a culture of fear, suspicion, and negative competition takes root. The organization becomes less resilient, less innovative, and profoundly less attractive to future top talent, who will steer clear of a workplace with a reputation for toxicity. The organization is left with the cutters and the conformists, having driven out the creators and the contributors.
       

        

      

             

        

          Part 4           A Two-Front Defense: Strategies for Targets and Leaders         

        

          

The Target’s Shield: A Guide to Personal Defense

       

For an individual in the crosshairs of a mob, the experience can be disorienting and isolating. Taking strategic, deliberate action is a way to reclaim a sense of agency and build a defense.

       

       
• Document Everything: This is the single most critical action a target can take. Keep a detailed, factual, and dated log of every incident: who was involved, what was said or done, when and where it happened, and if there were any witnesses. This documentation should be kept on a personal device or in a private notebook, never on a work computer or network. Mobbing is defined by a pattern of repeated behavior, and this log is the primary evidence needed to demonstrate that pattern to HR or legal counsel.
       
• Practice Assertive Communication and Set Boundaries: It is crucial to distinguish assertive communication from the aggression of the bullies. This means speaking in a calm, clear, and strong voice to state that a specific behavior is unacceptable. It also involves setting firm boundaries, such as politely but firmly resisting attempts by coworkers to micromanage you or correcting misinformation in a professional manner.
       
• Build a Support Network: Do not suffer in silence. The goal of the mob is to isolate the target. Counter this by confiding in trusted colleagues, friends, and family. Sharing the experience can provide crucial emotional support and validate that you are not imagining the abuse. Seeking out allies within the organization can also provide alternative channels for information and support.
       
• Engage Strategically with Management and HR: Reporting the behavior is a critical step, but it must be done with caution and strategy. It is generally not advisable to report without a solid body of documented evidence. Before approaching a manager or HR, assess the situation: Is the manager part of the problem? Does the HR department have a reputation for being effective or for protecting management at all costs? If you do proceed, present your case calmly and factually, supported by your documentation. Review your organization’s anti-bullying policies beforehand.
       
• Prioritize Your Health and Know When to Leave: The toll of mobbing is immense. It is essential to boost your emotional resilience through self-care, exercise, and, if necessary, professional mental health support from a therapist who understands workplace dynamics. Ultimately, it is vital to recognize that in a truly toxic environment, the only winning move is to leave. Resigning from a job that is destroying your health is not a sign of failure; it is a courageous act of self-preservation.
       

       

The following table provides a practical guide for responding to specific mobbing tactics.

       

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

The Mob's Tactic	Your Counter-Play	Rationale & Supporting Evidence
Withholding Information: You are left off crucial emails or conversations, affecting your performance.	Create a Paper Trail: Follow up verbal requests with an email: "Hi [Name], just confirming our conversation where I requested the project specs. Please send them when you can."	Establishes a documented record of your attempts to get the information, shifting the burden of non-compliance to them.
Spreading Rumors/Gossip: You hear false or negative stories being circulated about you or your work.	Address the Source (If Safe): Calmly and privately confront the person spreading the rumor. Use "I" statements: "I heard a rumor that [X], and it's impacting my work. Can you help me understand where this is coming from?" If unsafe, report to HR with evidence.	Direct confrontation can sometimes stop the behavior. Reporting to HR with documented instances is the next step if the behavior is systemic or escalates.
Public Criticism/Humiliation: Your work or ideas are constantly belittled in meetings or public forums.	Reclaim Your Narrative: Stay calm. Respond with facts, not emotion. "Thank you for the feedback. The data I used for that conclusion is [Y], which supports the approach." Follow up with your manager privately to express your concern about the public nature of the criticism.	Demonstrates professionalism under pressure and reinforces your credibility. It isolates the bully's behavior as unprofessional.
Exclusion/Icing Out: You are consistently left out of team lunches, social events, or informal project discussions.	Focus on Formal Channels & Build Other Alliances: Ensure you are on all official communication channels. Proactively seek information. Cultivate strong relationships with other colleagues outside the mobbing group.	You cannot force social inclusion, but you can prevent professional exclusion. Building other alliances provides support and alternative information channels.
Impossible Workload/Deadlines: You are assigned tasks that are designed for you to fail.	Manage Up and Document: Respond in writing: "Thank you for this assignment. To meet the deadline with a high standard of quality, I will need to deprioritize X and Y. Please let me know if you agree with this approach."	This is not refusal; it's professional negotiation. It documents the unreasonable demand and forces the manager to either acknowledge the trade-offs or reveal their unreasonable stance.

       

       

The Leader’s Garden: Cultivating a Culture of Excellence and Safety

       

While targets can build shields, the ultimate responsibility for eradicating mobbing lies with organizational leadership. Leaders are the gardeners of the corporate culture; they can either cultivate a space where talent thrives or allow the weeds of toxicity to take over.

       

       
• Develop and Enforce Robust Policies: A vague statement against bullying is insufficient. Organizations need a clear, specific, and comprehensive anti-mobbing policy that explicitly defines unacceptable behaviors—including covert tactics like exclusion and information withholding—and outlines a safe, confidential reporting process with clear, consistently applied consequences.
       
• Train Leaders and Managers to See and Act: It is not enough to have a policy on paper. Leaders at all levels must be trained to recognize the subtle signs of mobbing, to take all claims seriously, and to intervene quickly, fairly, and decisively. A critical part of this training is to dismantle the myth that bullies are often high performers who should be forgiven for their behavior. The reality is that true high performers are more likely to be targets, and tolerating a bully's behavior for the sake of their perceived output is a catastrophic long-term mistake.
       
• Model and Reward Civil Behavior: Culture is set from the top. Leaders must consistently model the behavior they expect: civility, respect, and inclusivity. This means actively celebrating the successes of others, avoiding favoritism, giving credit where it is due, and fostering a spirit of genuine collaboration over cutthroat competition.
       
• Redefine and Measure "Performance": To protect high performers, organizations must adopt a more sophisticated understanding of performance itself. Moving beyond simplistic individual metrics to include 360-degree feedback can help identify toxic individuals who are good at "managing up" but destructive to their peers and subordinates. Performance evaluations should weigh not only an employee's individual contributions but also their impact on team cohesion, knowledge sharing, and psychological safety.
       
• Cultivate Psychological Safety: This is the ultimate antidote to a culture of fear. Psychological safety is a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. It means creating an environment where employees feel comfortable speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes without fear of punishment or humiliation. When psychological safety is high, the covert tactics of the mob lose their power, because open communication and trust are the norm.
       

        

      

             

        

          Part 5           Conclusion         

        

          

The mobbing of high performers is a profound and tragic failure—a failure of empathy, of leadership, and of culture. It is far more than a personal dispute or a matter for HR to mediate. It is a symptom of a deep-seated organizational pathology, where unchecked envy, pathological group dynamics, and weak leadership conspire to punish the very qualities that organizations claim to covet. In driving out its most competent and ethical members, an organization engages in a slow-motion act of self-destruction.

The solution, therefore, cannot be merely procedural. It requires forging a new social contract in the workplace. This contract must champion a healthier form of ambition—one rooted not in the zero-sum pursuit of status and prestige, but in the desire for mastery, contribution, and the actualization of potential. It must be built on a renewed commitment to civility, understood not as mere politeness or the avoidance of conflict, but as a "civic code of decency" that demands we discipline our baser impulses for the sake of the community.

Ultimately, protecting our "tall poppies" is not about coddling superstars or creating a conflict-free utopia. It is about an organization making a fundamental choice about its own character. It is the choice to be a garden where diverse talents can flourish, rather than a barren field where everything is cut down to the same mediocre height. It is the choice between a culture of fear and a culture of excellence. In the demanding landscape of the modern economy, only the latter has a future.

        

      

                

    

      

Frequently Asked Questions

            

        

What is the difference between workplace bullying and mobbing?

Mobbing is described as 'bullying on steroids,' involving a group ganging up on a single target, unlike a bully who can act alone. The collective action creates a suffocating hostile environment by distributing the abuse among many actors.

Who is typically targeted in workplace mobbing?

Contrary to myth, targets of mobbing are often an organization's most valuable employees—highly competent, creative, and ethical individuals whose high performance challenges group norms and implicitly threatens insecure colleagues.

What is the 'Tall Poppy Syndrome'?

It's a cultural tendency to resent, criticize, and metaphorically 'cut down' individuals who stand out through success and achievement. It reflects a deep-seated human tension between celebrating excellence and enforcing group conformity.

What is the most critical action a target of mobbing can take?

The most critical action is to document everything. Keeping a detailed, factual, and dated log of every incident provides the primary evidence needed to demonstrate a pattern of behavior to HR or legal counsel.