The "Add and Kick" Playbook: When Workplace Bullying Goes Digital: Study case of Fransiskus Febryan Suryawan and Samsung R&D Institute Indonesia

There is a new trend circulating among people who have unresolved grievances with others. It does not involve confrontation. It involves a WhatsApp group.

Here is how the tactic works: they add you to a group you never asked to join, sometimes a group with a provocative or dismissive name, and then within seconds or minutes, they remove you. No message. No context. Just the cold notification staring back at you.

I know this because it happened to me. Again.

What Is the "Add and Kick" Tactic?

The mechanics are simple. The psychology behind it is not.

Adding someone to a group signals to every other member: "Look, we have power over this person's notifications, their attention, their presence." Then removing them immediately amplifies the message: "And we can erase them too."

After all, what law did they break? They just pressed a button, right?

Wrong.

This Is Not Harmless. This Is Harassment.

Under Indonesian law, digital harassment is not a grey area.

The key word is pattern. One incident is easy to dismiss. A repeated, coordinated campaign of digital provocation is something else entirely.

And I document everything.

Why Do They Do This?

Because they have no real argument left.

When someone cannot win on merit, when they cannot defend their past actions against you in any legitimate forum, they resort to theater. The "add and kick" move is theater. It is meant to signal to mutual contacts that you are someone to be mocked, discarded, socially cancelled.

A Message to Anyone Watching This Happen

If you are a mutual contact, a colleague, a former coworker who witnessed this or was present in that group when it happened: you now have a choice.

Silence is a vote for the bully.

If you believe in professional integrity, if you believe that workplaces and social circles should be places of dignity, then do not laugh at this. Do not scroll past it. Name what it is.

A Message to the People Who Did This

I want you to understand something clearly.

I am not embarrassed. I am not rattled. I am not going to reach out to ask why, to beg for inclusion, or to pretend this did not happen.

What I will do is continue building, continue documenting, and continue speaking publicly about the tactics used by people who lack the courage to engage honestly.

You added me to a group called "indomie tapi pizza" and removed me within moments. That is the level of sophistication of your retaliation strategy.

I have labor dispute proceedings, formal police reports at Bareskrim, and a public record of everything that led to this moment.

You chose theater. I am choosing the record.

To Every Professional Reading This

If you are ever targeted by coordinated digital harassment, from "add and kick" games to smear campaigns, know this:

Document every incident with timestamps

Screenshot every notification and note who orchestrated it

File formal reports when patterns emerge

Speak publicly when it is safe and strategic to do so

Silence protects abusers. Visibility changes the calculus. The goal is not revenge. The goal is accountability. And accountability starts with refusing to pretend that what happened was normal.

Close

I am building a company. I am pursuing justice through every legitimate channel available to me. I am producing, publishing, and moving forward.

What they are doing is pressing buttons on a phone and hoping I will crumble. I will not.

The record is public. The record is permanent. And the record will outlast all of this.

Rahmat Wibowo

Co-Founder & CEO — Infraloka (PT. Infrastruktur Digital Nusantara)

SRE — Pertamina Marine Solution

Rahmatan lil Alamin.

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