Today I would like to try to address a sensitive issue, but one that my experience tells me is worth discussing. In the world of technology companies, where innovation and productivity are paramount, workplace stress has become an increasingly worrying issue. While terms such as ‘burnout’ have entered the lexicon, there are other, more specific forms of workplace stress that deserve attention. Two particularly relevant phenomena are ‘mobbing’ and ‘straining’, which, although related, represent distinct challenges in the workplace.

The modern tech workplace: A Perfect Storm

Technology companies often pride themselves on their progressive workplace cultures, with perks like unlimited vacation policies, flexible working hours, and casual dress codes. However, beneath this seemingly relaxed exterior, the pressure to perform, deliver, and innovate can create an environment where psychological harassment can flourish.

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The unique characteristics of tech companies – rapid growth, high-stakes projects, frequent reorganizations, and intense competition – can sometimes create conditions where workplace harassment takes subtle forms. Understanding the difference between mobbing and straining becomes crucial for employees, managers, and HR professionals in identifying and addressing these issues.

Defining the terms

Straining represents a form of workplace stress that, while less severe than mobbing, can still significantly impact an employee’s well-being. It typically manifests as isolated or occasional hostile actions or situations that create a stressful work environment. Unlike mobbing, straining doesn’t necessarily involve a systematic campaign of harassment but rather consists of specific stressful conditions or behaviors that can harm an employee’s psychological well-being.

Mobbing, on the other hand, is characterized by systematic psychological harassment, typically involving a coordinated effort by one or more individuals to isolate, marginalize, or remove an employee from the workplace. This behavior is persistent, targeted, and often escalates over time.

Straining: common scenarios

Straining often manifests in ways that might seem normal or even expected in the industry.

Here are some common scenarios:

The “Always-On” Culture: Tech companies often blur the lines between work and personal time. While not necessarily malicious, practices like expecting immediate responses to late-night messages or scheduling meetings across multiple time zones can create significant stress. When these practices become excessive or disregard legally mandated rest periods, they constitute straining.

Project Pressure: The nature of technology projects, with their tight deadlines and high stakes, can lead to situations where employees face unreasonable demands. When managers consistently push for overtime or weekend work without proper compensation or consideration for work-life balance, this creates a stressful environment characteristic of straining.

Role Ambiguity: In fast-growing tech companies, job roles often evolve rapidly. While adaptation is necessary, situations where employees are consistently given responsibilities without proper support or training, or where their role constantly shifts without clear communication, can constitute straining.

Technical Debt Pressure: Engineers often face pressure to cut corners or work with problematic legacy systems, creating ongoing stress when they’re held responsible for issues beyond their control.

Mobbing: a more systematic threat

Mobbing often takes more sophisticated forms than in traditional workplaces. Here are some distinctive characteristics:

Systematic Exclusion: In tech companies, mobbing might involve systematically excluding someone from important technical discussions, code reviews, or architecture decisions. This can be particularly damaging in an industry where collaboration and knowledge-sharing are crucial.

Technical Gaslighting: A unique form of mobbing in tech involves consistently undermining someone’s technical competence, either by unnecessarily criticizing their code, dismissing their technical suggestions, or attributing system failures to them without justification.

Career Blocking: In an industry where career growth often depends on working on high-profile projects or with new technologies, mobbing might involve systematically assigning an employee to legacy systems or maintenance work, effectively stunting their professional growth.

While legal frameworks vary by jurisdiction, the distinction between mobbing and straining has important implications. Straining, being more easily documented through specific incidents or conditions, often provides a clearer path to legal recourse. Evidence might include:

  • Documentation of excessive working hours or denied rest periods
  • Records of unreasonable deadlines or workloads
  • Communications showing persistent disregard for work-life balance
  • Patterns of arbitrary criticism or unjustified negative feedback

Mobbing cases, while potentially more severe, often require demonstrating a pattern of intentional harassment over time, which can be more challenging to prove.

Prevention and mitigation

Technology companies can take several steps to prevent both straining and mobbing:

Clear Policies and Procedures: Establish and communicate clear guidelines about working hours, on-call responsibilities, and project expectations. These should explicitly address common tech industry practices that might lead to straining.

Regular Workload Assessment: Implement systems to monitor and evaluate workload distribution, particularly during high-stress periods like product launches or major releases.

Cultural Assessment: Regularly evaluate company culture, particularly focusing on how technical disagreements are handled and how career advancement opportunities are distributed.

Training and Awareness: Provide training for managers and team leads about recognizing and preventing both straining and mobbing, with specific attention to how these issues manifest in technical environments.

The role of Leadership

Managers play a crucial role in preventing both straining and mobbing. They should:

  • Model healthy work-life boundaries
  • Encourage open discussion about workload and stress
  • Create clear escalation paths for concerns
  • Ensure technical disagreements remain professional and constructive
  • Regularly review team dynamics and address potential issues early

As the technology industry continues to evolve, understanding and addressing workplace harassment in all its forms becomes increasingly important. While straining might seem less severe than mobbing, both can have serious impacts on employee well-being and organizational health.

The key is to recognize that creating a healthy workplace isn’t just about preventing obvious harassment – it’s about building an environment where stress is managed effectively, work is distributed fairly, and everyone has the opportunity to contribute and grow professionally.

For technology companies, addressing these issues isn’t just about legal compliance or risk management – it’s about creating sustainable workplaces that can drive innovation while supporting employee well-being. As the industry matures, how companies handle these challenges will increasingly define their ability to attract and retain top talent.