• Notion of the pack of wolves grouped around their prey [14].

 Examples of collective persecution (Mobbing):

The group preventing the victim from expressing himself and denying him any direct communication, making sure he always takes coffee breaks and meal breaks alone or cut-off from his work team (isolating), the group discrediting and humiliating the victim through constant sarcastic remarks (undermining), unjustly reprimanding and demoting the victim, forcing him to resign or else firing him for errors without the supervisor or work group(s) considering the cause of such errors (destroy by intimidation or bullying).

• Notion of the tyrant or the tyranny of one person through hidden or covert attacks. If the attacks become open or the tyrant attacks everyone at work indiscriminately, it becomes managerial abuse since the tyrant, in this case, is not targeting an individual or a specific group and is not attacking others through hidden or covert acts of aggression (violence through forced transfer, omission or traps). 

Examples of intimidation (bullying):  

Always giving the victim orders by yelling, jostling and criticizing in a destructive and frequent manner in front of co-workers (isolating), assigning an overly heavy workload and constantly shortening deadlines so as to ensure that they cannot be met (undermining), demoting an employee who is performing well but to whom the supervisor has taken a personal dislike, by unjustly relieving him of his responsibilities and by imposing subordinate tasks or tasks at a level below his capacity (destroying).

• Notion of breaking down the victim's morale or causing him to suffer a breakdown through both physical and psychological abuse.

Please Note:

-Persecution (mobbing) and intimidation (bullying), respectively, are the collective and individual modes of definition of moral harassment.

-Persecution and intimidation generally follow the same stages of increasing seriousness of abusive behaviours (isolating, undermining and destroying).

 

N.B. Collective persecution and intimidation in the workplace are therefore examples of harassment. Moral harassment can also be discriminatory if it contravenes sections 10 and 15 of the Quebec and Canadian Charters of Human Rights and Freedoms respectively (sexism, racism, homophobia, lesbophobia, political and religious discrimination).

•  Notion of unwelcome sexual conduct in the workplace.

Eg: Looks, comments, insinuations or hurtful allusions to the victim's private life or sexual preferences, fondling and forms of sexual assault described in the Canadian Criminal Code.

 

There are three degrees of sexual harassment :

Annoying Degree: looks, whistles, pictures, intimate questions, inappropriate comments, brushing up against a person.

Restricting Degree: as in criminal harassment (stalking), small unwanted gifts, following the victim at work and outside of work, ambiguous offers at work and outside of work, caressing, pinching, cornering, lifting clothes.

Aggressive Degree: threatening letters, exhibitionism, voyeurism, anonymous and/or obscene telephone calls, refusal to accept the end of a romantic relationship, tearing off clothes, attempted rape and rape.

•  Notion of constantly tracking someone at work and outside of work.

This form of harassment has been governed since the early 1990s by sections of criminal law in several Common Law countries such as the United States, Australia and Canada. There are three basic elements common to the laws in all of these countries: (1) the existence of threatening behaviour, (2) the criminal intent of the stalker, and (3) the repetitive nature of the acts.

N.B. In section 423 of the Canadian Criminal Code, intimidation refers to criminal harassment rather than bullying or intimidation in the workplace.

Examples of criminal harassment (Stalking):
Sending admiring messages, flowers or love letters, tracking the victim's movements at work and outside of work, constant telephone calls or emails, unwanted visits at work and even at home, repulsive and threatening gifts, suicide threats with vague allusions to misfortunes ahead for the victim, physical assaults on family, friends or co-workers if the victim becomes less accessible, and, in the most extreme cases, murdering the victim.

These nuances are based on remarks made by Louis Brunet, a UQAM professor, at a lecture given in May 2002 at Université Laval to ACFAS (Association canadienne-française pour l'avancement des sciences) (French-Canadian association for the advancement of science):

• A terrorist seeks to target innocent people that everyone can identify with in order to destroy the positive sentiments of whole populations and bring in the idea of a "collective enemy" in an escalating mindset of war and vengeance, but which too often affects people at their place of work.
• Workplace massacres are most often committed against specific organizations of which the aggressor is an ex-employee or ex-client who was also a victim of workplace violence or who is suffering from psychological distress which contributed to his or her becoming marginalized socially and at work. A stalker can become the perpetrator of a massacre. However, there is no specific profile for detecting such a person.

Conclusion open to further questionning about terrorism and workplace massacres:

Pronouncing judgement on a very complex social phenomenon such as terrorism and restricting it to the workplace is a theoretical and practical position which is difficult to support. Massacres seem to be closer to the notion of murder in the workplace but remain difficult to define when the workplace is a public place such as in the case of public transport.

The abuse of power or administrative harassment refers to conduct aimed at drawing unfair advantage of a situation of formal or informal power in an organization in order to harm or hinder a person's or a group's productivity or survival at work or their career. The abuse of power can be expressed through blackmail, threats or excessive and unjustified supervision.

With the exception of workplace massacres, which are isolated or impulsive instances of physical assault, the abuse of power is a component of several definitions of violence involving harassment: moral, sexual and sometimes criminal harassment.

The power can be formal, hierarchical or officially recognized by everyone, or informal, based instead on credibility, experience, contracts or fees for services rendered.

Administrative harassment or abuse of power becomes strategic harassment when it is elevated to an arbitrary and unjustified system of personnel management specifically aimed at forcing employees to resign. This harassment is difficult to identify, but its existence can be proven by a public inquiry commission which has real powers to summon people to appear and to take disciplinary action.

This phenomenon can arise between two individuals or between two work groups. Hyperconflict goes beyond stress, acute psychological suffering, violence in general and psychological harassment because it includes all of these realities.

At a Cognitive Level

• In hyperconflict, the parties mutually attack one another, sometimes through a spokesperson, and their differences are irreconcilable. The parties involved disagree on both the very basis of their differences and the way these differences take shape, or the way they structure their understanding of them. Their interpretations of the same reality are radically different and incompatible.

At a Behavioural Level

• Hyperconflict is punctuated by organizational stress combined with psychological harassment between at least two individuals or two work groups.
• It should be pointed out that scenarios involving a duel or epic violence (war between two cliques) do not count as hyperconflict because the opponents agree on the overall meaning and on some interpretations of the situation. In hyperconflict, the framework within which each event is understood and interpreted is irreconcilable between the two parties involved. Moreover, any attempt at clarification between the individuals or groups only aggravates the situation.

At an Emotional Level

• Hyperconflict is experienced with intense psychological suffering, involving at least two individuals or groups.
• Examples:
  A very complex conflict in the workplace between two extremely different individuals.
  A multitude of inter-group conflicts: hierarchical conflicts and individual conflicts combined with psychological harassment and intense psychological suffering, between, for example, members of four out of six of a firm's departments.