When the Holocaust got underway, those who fled early suffered the least and recovered the fastest. In order to survive, it may be helpful to take a lesson from those who survived the Holocaust. ![]() The more you demonstrate that the attacks against you are wrong, illegal and just plain cruel, the more wrong, illegal and cruel they will become. Importantly, reason – and public scrutiny – will not stop the aggression, but intensify it. Your anger will be treated as evidence of threatening behavior, your fear will be evidence of paranoid thinking, your confusion will be evidence of your erratic state and mental impairment, and your impaired productivity – from having your responsibilities taken away, your contributions ignored, your time invested in specious “investigations” and fighting for your job, and your emotions exhausted by the sheer weight of the battle – will become evidence that you can’t do the job. Leadership has given the signal that you are to be eliminated and it is okay to attack you, the mob has formed and the bear is coming your way. The more you fight the mob, the more force will be used to compel your elimination – regardless of how accurate, fair or even legal the claims are that are used to justify your elimination. What that means in an organizational setting is that you are no longer engaged in the warfare of work, but are instead facing a genocidal process. The more you fight a grizzly bear, and the longer you are visible and moving, the meaner that bear is going to get. So what do you do once the bear gets a hold of you? Have a fair fight? Give that bear everything you’ve got? Good luck. ![]() And if you run in their direction with a grizzly hot on your trail, they will be outraged – not at the bear, but at you for putting them at risk. When the bear goes after you, friends are going to run as fast as they can – away from the bear. The sooner you are able to identify what you have done to trigger these emotions, the sooner you can change your own behaviors and more favorably influence perceptions of you until the mob either diffuses, or you get out of their reach and into a new future… How Survival Operatesįighting the mob is like fighting a grizzly bear. You have been mobbed because you have done something – however well meaning, however benign, however unintended to hurt anyone, however legal – but you have done something to trigger a violent reaction in others. Do not accept any claims that you deserve this treatment, but do not accept the victim label, either. Protect your reputation, safeguard your security and increase your options for escape. Retreat, quietly document everything, but get your resume together and start applying for jobs – even if you don’t want to leave. Doing so does not in any way justify the violence that is being directed toward you, but just as you learn not to look a grizzly bear in the eyes if you should come across one, figure out what you are doing that is provoking your attackers. …If you are being mobbed, take an honest look at yourself and your own behaviors in fueling the aggression. As important, she raises questions about the efficacy of laws, “zero tolerance,” and the “bully label.” Just Us Justice She gave me permission to re-print excerpts of Just Us Justice which include Harper’s own perspective on how to survive mobbing. I decided to give her a call and quickly found myself deep in conversation with a fascinating woman. ![]() The author details Harper’s horrific descent into what has been called an academic witch hunt. Anyone uncomfortable that she links this phenomena to lessons learned from the Holocaust should read the in-depth article, Trial by FBI Investigation. Her 2010 paper, Just Us Justice, is the culmination of lessons learned from a chilling personal experience with mobbing in the workplace. Janice Harper and decided to learn more about her work. I was fascinated by a recent series of articles in the Huffington Post written by Dr.
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