Preventing - Workplace Violence

Preventing Workplace Violence - Winter, 1994

PROBLEM: Various sources have estimated that the number of workplace homicides has grown 200-300% in the last ten years. In fact, violence in the workplace is the third leading cause of death on the job; among working women, it is the leading cause of death in the workplace. It claims a total of nearly 1,000 lives a year from every kind of organization: large and small, public and private, urban and suburban.

The cost of workplace violence shows up in a number of distinct areas. Once an incident occurs, there is almost always a loss of productivity and morale tends to drop. In addition to the people who are physically injured, invariably there are dozens of people who are severely traumatized by the event. Many times there are also legal fees, punitive damages and higher medical insurance claims.

SOLUTION: There are a number of practical things you can do to prevent and prepare for violence in your workplace. These include:

Create a plan that describes how your organization would deal with warnings from employees about other potentially violent employees (e.g., all reports should be completely confidential and routed to a neutral party such as someone in Human Resources).
Create a Crisis Management Team composed of your HR Director, a psychologist with special training in this area, the head of security and a legal counsel with special training, which would evaluate any warnings and decide what to do about them.
Train your managers and/or all of your people to be aware of the warning signs of a potentially violent individual.
Teach your managers how to hire and fire people while keeping the issue of violence in mind. (Firings and layoffs tend to trigger many volatile employees.)
Create a crisis plan that would teach your people how to react during and after a violent episode occurs.

EXAMPLE: An organization had an employee with a history of performance problems who was playing with a fake gun and making jokes that had threatening overtones. His supervisor was about to give him a poor performance review and reduce his pay but the supervisor was afraid that doing so would trigger some form of violent behavior. They hired me to put together a Crisis Management Team which evaluated the employee's work history and recommended a number of things, including sending him to their EAP for counseling. They also reevaluated the organization's security procedures.

RESULTS: Nothing happened after the performance review. This is the ideal outcome of that sort of situation. Meanwhile the supervisor felt safer and the company was prepared in case there was any violence.

SUMMARY: Violence in the workplace won't just go away. Take the time to prepare your organization for a worst case scenario.

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Michael H. Smith, Ph.D.
5801 Leona St., Ste A
Oakland, CA 94605

Tel: 510-530-7900
Fax: 510-530-7922
Email: MHSmith@MichaelHSmithPhD.Com