Conflict resolution and protection of rights

Discrimination takes the form of differentiating and disadvantaging people on the basis of their membership of a general group, regardless of the individual's abilities. Depending on the specific criterion of discrimination, it may be based on sex, age, ethnic, national or social origin, religious belief or conviction, sexual orientation, language, political opinion, etc.

Sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct that constitutes any unwelcome or offensive sexual conduct that is repeated or sufficiently severe to have a harmful effect, or that contains an implied or overt promise of preferential treatment or an implied or overt threat of harmful treatment.

In the context of a university, sexual harassment can take many different forms:

• unsolicited repeated sexual advances,
• forcing sexual behavior in return,
• making inappropriate comments towards an individual or group on the basis of sex, gender or sexuality,
• unsolicited emails, photos or messages of a sexual nature,
• inappropriate sex jokes and obscene gestures,
• exposing breasts, buttocks or genitals in public,
• unsolicited touches,
• rape or attempted rape.

This is long-term systematic pressure that includes hostile and unethical communication, regardless of what the employee does or how he or she behaves in the workplace. It manifests itself as targeted and repeated attacks on a person in the workplace by colleagues, consisting primarily of destructive communication. The aim is to weaken the person in general and to exclude him/her from the team.

Mobbing has of course occurred in the past, as have disagreements and conflicts. However, these phenomena should not be confused. The fact that a worker has conflicts at work does not necessarily mean that he or she has been the victim of mobbing. In contrast, conflicts can also be beneficial. However, if they are not resolved, they can develop into pathological relationships, which is exactly what mobbing is. Mobbing is not a request by a supervisor or colleagues for adequate work performance by an employee.

Signs of mobbing:

• occurrence at least once a week for at least half a year,
• long-term and continuous attacks targeting a specific individual,
• regularity and repetition,
• the attacks are systematic and targeted,
• threats are indirect and hidden, so it is difficult to detect that something is happening,
• a hostile and unethical form of communication.

Specific types of mobbing

Mobbing occurs most often among colleagues - 44% . While the word mobbing is used to describe psychological violence by a colleague against a colleague, we can meet other terms - bossing, the opposite phenomenon is called staffing.

Bossing

It is a specific type of mobbing by a supervisor who abuses his or her position and humiliates or intimidates a subordinate. For example, he or she humiliates the subordinate in front of his or her colleagues, makes it difficult or impossible for the subordinate to do his or her job and usually prevents him or her from further development and career advancement. Bossing can be manifested by repeated and systematic assignment of impossible or meaningless work tasks, excessive control and unreasonable sanctions, non-communication and ignoring the employee, and appropriation of the results of the subordinate's work by the supervisor. Bossing, however, is not requiring standard work performance of the employee and adequate organization and control of the work of subordinates by the supervisor.

Staffing

Indicates the harming of a supervisor by his subordinates. Subordinate employees belittle the supervisor's decisions, ignore any new decision or order, denigrate the supervisor in front of his/her colleagues, deny him/her access to information and make it difficult for him/her to perform job duties. Often this is a conspiracy by a group of subordinates against, for example, a new manager.

Consequences of mobbing

Mobbing poses a risk to health and safety at work.

It brings negative consequences for the whole workplace. Not only does the performance of the victim decrease, but also that of the mobber; both individuals actually underuse their working time. At the same time, the atmosphere in the workplace changes significantly.

This is a working environment where harassment, bullying or other negative phenomena occur. A long-term hostile work environment can result in poor communication, a decline in team performance, increased turnover and, in some cases, burnout syndrome.

At MU Faculty of Science, we are committed to providing equal opportunities for our employees. With this goal in mind, the Masaryk University Code of Ethics has been adopted at the university level and we require every employee at the Faculty of Science to comply with it. We strive to create a working environment that is friendly and safe, providing a dignified environment for development and cooperation. Quality staff with good interpersonal relations is a key value for the Faculty of Science of MU.