Work Place Violence What Can We Do

Posted by Ross Arrowsmith on Monday, July 13th 2009 under Workplace Violence

By Joseph Prawdzik, examiner.com

In today’s business world most large organizations have documented policy describing standard procedure for typical workplace incidents. Most human resources generalists can refer to the employee handbook for guidance, these policies are created by experts to maximize employee productivity and minimize legal exposure to the company.

But what happens when the incident isn’t typical? Workplace violence is happening with increasing frequency, homicide is the second-leading cause of fatal occupational injury in the United States, according the Bureau of Labor’s revised report from 2007. Stories about employees losing their job only to return with a firearm for retribution are, unfortunately, not uncommon. In most cases, employers have little or no procedure to follow when violence erupts beyond calling security or the police. Better-prepared companies may have established an escape route. Some might even conduct a drill once or twice each year. However, very few have anything in place to deal directly with the violence. How do you reason with someone who is pointing a gun at you? What do your employees do when the escape route is blocked? Do they know other hiding places? If they are confronted with the shooter do they know what, or perhaps more importantly, what not to say?

These are reasonable questions that employers need to be asking themselves – not only for the purpose of limiting legal exposure, but, much more importantly, for the safety of their staff. The laws in your area may not require a company to see the foreseeable risk; however, that does not relieve a company from its responsibility to provide a safe working environment. In nearly every case of extreme workplace violence, there were many signs that, if someone on staff had been properly trained, would have been noticed and something could have been done to avoid a violent episode. Pending signs of crisis can include hypersensitiveness to criticism, increased argumentative/aggressive behavior, obsession with co-worker, supervisor or an employee grievance, Employees with the potential for workplace violence may also make statements about the “place burning down”, or “this is why I need a gun” that can be masked and easily misinterpreted as frustration or even humor.

Most employers do not want to acknowledge that violence could happen on their premises or that the chances of it happening are getting worse. However, the facts show exactly that and without addressing the issue, it is just the luck-of-the-draw where it happens next and how many people are hurt.