Violence in the workplace has been a significant challenge facing human resource departments in recent years. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Act of 1970 defines workplace violence as “any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behaviour that occurs at the work site,” which ranges from verbal abuse to physical assault (OSHA, 2016). In 2017, more than 2 million incidences of workplace violence were reported in the US (Bureau of Labour Statistics, 2017). For the same year, 400 homicides were reported, while 807 workers were fatally injured in workplace conflicts. These incriminating statistics illustrate the urgent need to understand workplace violence, especially those initiated by employees, and then work towards a solution.
Indicators of a violent employee
Given that 83% of all incidences in the US had “clear indications” (that were neglected beforehand), it is possible to tactfully tell an employee who tends to violence (Lebron, 2020). Mostly, resorting to violence is a culmination of a long struggle with mostly concealed emotions or expressed covertly. The Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) suggests the following as hints to a potentially aggressive and violent worker;
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Increasingly threatening behaviour
Workers with nasty tendencies such as holding grudges and anyhow escalating threats from minute conflicts are at high chances of starting workplace behaviour. The reason being, such employees, are often emotionally unstable, and sustained irritations are bound to blow them off their limits.
Intimidating behaviour
Highly argumentative, uncooperative, and impulsive employees should be properly monitored and handled cautiously. That is because their emotional disposition makes them feel unloved, unvalued, and not understood. Therefore, it might sound appealing to them to start a fight to “prove their point.” Another key element with intimidating workers is their tendency to challenge authority. Workers who frequently engage in verbal contests with their superiors are likely to start violence because they feel the urge to express their “importance.”
Built-up of negative attitudes and personalities
Employees with feelings of low self-esteem, high suspicion, and entitlement are often at high chances of starting workplace violence because they can barely manage to handle criticism. Similarly, these workers tend to blame others, which might easily evoke conflicts that might evolve into physical confrontations.
Social isolation
While social isolation is a normal personality, some employees get too carried into self-isolation to the point of building mistrust with their peers or helplessly succumbing to emotional burdens. Employees with negative interpersonal relationships and depict little or no friendships with co-workers have a higher tendency to start conflicts because they tend to make misjudgements of changes in the workplace.
History of violence
Some employees are violent by nature, which is often reflected in their track. Employers must be keen with individuals who have been ever dismissed on discipline grounds and those who show interest in violent behaviour. For instance, some people are fond of agitating conflict. When small incidences of conflict are noted from such employees, caution must be taken, understanding their disposition for violence.
Employees with extremist standpoints regarding organizational and workplace changes also pose threats to peace in the workplace. Consequently, they might institute covert plans to undermine progress because the entire staff decided on implementing a certain change against their extremist opinion. Employees with a history of drug abuse, violent marriages, or family conflicts also heighten violence chances. Lastly, changes in attitude, signs of distress, excessive tiredness and absenteeism, drastically reducing performance, inability to concentrate, and change in work habits might be useful indicators. The management must step up in time to counsel or briefly relieve the employee to avoid emotional build-up.
Actions to prevent workplace violence
In finding suitable solutions to the employee violence problem, it is important to understand the types of workplace violence. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) assigns four categories:
- Violent acts by criminals, whose motive is to commit robbery.
- Violence directed at employees by other parties (clients and outsiders).
- Violence perpetrated against employees from a close member of a friend (roots from domestic conflicts)
- Violence arising from employees.
The last category is our focus, and the following are some of the possible ways to prevent violence instigated by employees.
Training
The management should train employees to detect signs of a potentially violent co-worker. Therefore, workers should be warned to be cautious with people depicting signs of depression or withdrawal, a blatant violation of workplace policies, and excessive alcohol or drugs use.
Establish workplace violence policy
The employer’s obligation in stemming workplace violence is enacting and publicizing workplace violence policies. Thus, employers must set explicit rules outlining what they consider violence and subsequent punishment. That would also call for frequent training of staff on the rules and regulations governing workplace conduct.
Create a supportive environment
Quite many incidences of depression ending up in violence had roots in frustration from the workplace management. In 2018, 34% of employees who caused workplace violence accused their immediate managers of alleviating the dispute’s escalation (Alert Find, 2018). Simple issues such as overbearing managers and over-demanding department leaders often push employees to overworking themselves into frustration. Therefore, employers should improve leadership and ensure equity especially in rewarding accomplishments. More so, lackadaisical management can promote disunity in the workplace by favouring some workers (such as unequal compensation), effectively building disunity that fuels violence.
Taking complaints seriously
Given some workplace violence incidents’ disguised nature, many employers tend to ignore them until they reach significant levels. But that proven a significant cause for more aggressive conflicts, as 41% of violent conflicts in 2019 evolved from less significant issues that were overlooked more than twice (Lebron, 2020). Therefore, employers should take all complaints seriously and keep track of the subtle ones.
Periodic assessments
Far from conducting background checks on new hires for mental health and incidences of violence in their history, employers should periodically review policies to ensure conformity with current security situations. The assessments should also assess potential threats and review measures and retributions.
Because some employees might fear stigmatization for reporting subtle incidences of violence, the management should set up innovative means of maintaining confidentiality and dignity in reporting and solving the conflicts. I would also recommend employee assistance programs to help employees who undergo violence cope and regain confidence in themselves and their roles.
How employees can protect themselves
An employee would better their chances against workplace violence by attending safety training workshops that enable them to predict, recognize, and diffuse/neutralize potentially violent situations. It should also be a priority to report incidences of violence in the workplace as soon as possible. And the reporting should be done in writing, through the proper channel. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) advises that female employees avoid unfamiliar, unlit, lonesome places alone. That follows the CCOHS’ observation that such’ tempting’ encounters accounted for more than half of workplace rape and rape attempt cases in 2018 (CCOHS, 2018). Employers should also take responsibility by lobbying to establish the desired zero-tolerance policies and safety programs, and employee assistance programs for victims.
In conclusion, employee violence is a frequent occurrence in today’s workplaces and must be actively combated by employers and employees. Notably, emotional and psychological factors like frustration and domestic conflicts seem to fuel aggression, and timely identification can minimize causalities. While employers do their best to hire and retain only people with the least tendency to violence, employees also have their part to play.
References
Alert Find. (2018). “Workplace Violence Statistics 2018: A Growing Problem .” Retrieved https://alertfind.com/workplace-violence-statistics/
Bureau of Labour Statistics. (2017, June). “Hospital Workers: An Assessment of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses.” Retrieved https://bls.gov/opub/mlr/2017/article/pdf/hospital-workers-an-assessment-of-occupational-injuries-and-illnesses.pdf
Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS). “Report of the Council: April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019.” (2019, April). Retrieved https://www.ccohs.ca/ccohs/reports/annualReport18-19.pdf
Lebron, A. (2020, August 11). “The Latest on Workplace Violence Statistics.” Rave Mobile Safety. Retrieved https://www.ravemobilesafety.com/blog/latest-workplace-violence-statistics
Occupational Safety and Health Organization. (2016, September). “Facts About Hospital Worker Safety. ” Retrieved https://www.osha.gov/dsg/hospitals/documents/1.2_Factbook_508.pdf
Society of Human Resource Management. (2019, March). “Workplace Violence: A Growing Threat, or Growing in Awareness?” 14(6), 23-25.
Society of Human Resource Management. (2020, May). “Understanding Workplace Violence Prevention and Response.” Retrieved https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/workplace-violence-prevention-and-response.aspx#warning-signs
