Protecting
Your
Organization:
What You
Should Know
 |
 |
What is Workplace Violence?
Many people believe that workplace violence involves homicide, bomb threats or sexual assault. In fact, most occurrences don’t take such dramatic form. A recent study by the Society of Human Resource Management revealed that 75% of respondents experienced simple assaults, while only 17% reported shootings, 7% stabbings and 6% sexual assaults.
California OSHA distinguishes three types of workplace violence:
Type I -- Violence committed during a robbery or other criminal act. Typical victims might be taxi drivers, fast-food delivery persons, or minute-market clerks. Dealing daily with the public, frequently alone, and handling sometimes-large amounts of cash makes such persons prone to victimization.
Type II -- Violence committed by an assailant who has developed a short- or long-term relationship with the victim, other than that of employer-employee or spouse or lover. The assailant may, for example, be a current or former client or patient of the victim, or a customer in the victim's store.
Type III -- Violence committed by an assailant who is a current or former employee, a current or former spouse or lover of an employee, or a person who may have a long-standing dispute with a company or with one of its employees.
Ignoring the Problem is Harmful.
Often, staff members—employers and employees both — are reluctant to recognize violence for what it is, and consequently don’t report it. A supervisor may be threatened by a subordinate, yet is likely to tell no one. An employee may be assaulted by a colleague, yet neither the police nor OSHA ever hears about it. Product sabotage or bomb threats are treated as embarrassing secrets.
Any violence -- including harassment, threats, intimidation, or even shoving and pushing -- damages an organization. Ignoring the problem sets a harmful standard. In fact, it has been proven that such acts, if tolerated, can lead to arson, vandalism, product sabotage, assault or even homicide. Violence not only affects morale and production, it ultimately can injure personnel, cause harm to management, and ruin a bottom line.
Whose Responsibility Is It?
The responsibility for preventing workplace violence is yours. Your local police department was not created for the purpose of preventing violence -- certainly not workplace violence. Its primary role is to respond to criminal acts, and secondarily, to investigate and prosecute those who have committed criminal acts. The policeman walking the beat serves as a deterrent to crime on the street, but in the workplace it is the employer's responsibility to become a deterrent. It is his or her responsibility to become knowledgeable in what constitutes workplace violence, and to be vigilant in its prevention.
