Some Sociological, Legislative and Pedagogical Aspects of the Prevalence of Mobbing among Teachers in Primary School (Case Study)

The paper sets forth the discussion of the occurrence of mobbing in Slovene elementary school. The study is based on empirical facts collected at three different schools. There are some differences between organizations in occurrence, victims’ characteristics, the reasons and consequences of mobbing. The results of the empirical research of the psychosocial conditions in the analysed working places show that more and more teachers as employees are becoming mobbing victims. Mobbing is defined as a very strong social stress factor. Each individual or social group experiences mobbing at work as a conflict situation and communication. An attacked individual as a victim of the conflict is exposed to permanent and long-term attacks by one or more people at work. The intention of these attacks is to oust the individual from the organization or to harm him/her in other ways. A lot of pressure is being imposed on the person and also intimidation, humiliation, molestation or other negative influences appear. Because of the psychic burden the victim usually becomes ill and often leaves the working position. Mobbing can affect the individual in a way that s/he is no longer capable of fitting into any new working environment. The most frequent consequences named by the victims are: stress, insomnia, concentration problems and family problems.