Causes of workplace violence

Workplace violence and harassment can take many forms, including rumors, swearing, verbal abuse, pranks, disagreements, property damage, vandalism, sabotage, pushing, theft, physical attacks, psychological trauma, anger-related incidents, rape, arson, and murder.

What is workplace violence?

Workplace violence is any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behavior that occurs at the work site. It ranges from threats and verbal abuse to physical assaults and even homicide. It can affect and involve employees, clients, customers, and visitors.

Related: Workplace violence examples

Causes of workplace violence

Workplace violence takes many forms and has many causes. Angered former employees, customers who feel wronged, stressed out employees or a conflict between co-workers can elevate to the point of a violent altercation in the office. Personal life does spill over into the workplace, and sometimes those personal issues present themselves at the office with dangerous consequences. Companies that recognize the potential for workplace violence are in the best position to prevent it.

Lack of Pre-employment Screening

Companies that do not conduct thorough background screenings on potential employees run the risk of hiring someone who could be prone to violence or has a violent past. Although many companies are using psychological tests during the hiring process in an attempt to weed out potentially violent candidates, the test is not full-proof and should not be substituted for a thorough background check.

Stress

As much as companies attempt to dictate this, employees do not leave their issues at the door. Stress, of a workplace and personal nature, can cause an employee to snap and lash out at whomever the perceived enemy is. Overworking employees can create a hostile work environment, and if the employee is also battling personal issues, the combination can have disastrous, if not deadly, results.

Lack of Employee Assistance Program

An employee assistance program (EAP) can diffuse a situation with a potentially violent employee before the employee has a chance to act. Most employees become violent as the last resort–they feel no one is addressing or acknowledging their needs. With an EAP program in place, employees have an impartial party with whom they can discuss the stressors in their life and possibly receive the assistance or treatment they need before things escalate into violence.

Denial

Companies who take the approach that nothing bad, such as a disgruntled employee returning to harm his former boss, actually fuel the workplace violence fire. Ignorance of the potential for violence in an organization will cause an organization not to put proper safety and conflict resolution measures into place, leaving the organization vulnerable to such an attack from employees and customers, and lacking the tools to diffuse the situation.

Disgruntled Customers And Former Employees

A person who feels a company has wronged him in some way can lash out at the company. It could be a customer who feels he was cheated, or it could be an employee who was fired, laid off, or wronged by a coworker. The angry customer or employee who comes back and opens fire on the office is the most talked about the type of workplace violence, but actually, it is a very small percentage of the total cases.

Types of workplace violence

One or more employees at your company can target or randomly attack individuals or groups with verbal or physical abuse. Also possible are suicide and self-harm. Incidents at work may entail violence between co-workers, relatives of employees, or between customers and employees. Violence can also be directed toward customers, an entire company, or people who share a particular age, race, gender, or ethnicity, or who belong to a particular religious, military, or political group.

Workplace violence can also come in different categories, which have been defined by the:

Criminal intent

Where the perpetrator has no legitimate connection to the business or its employees. This type of violence is usually the result of another crime being committed, such as robbery, shoplifting, or trespassing.

Customer/client

Where someone shows aggressive or violent behavior while being served by the business.

Worker on the worker

Where an employee (past or present) attacks or threatens another member of the workforce.

Personal relationship

Where a perpetrator who usually doesn’t have a relationship with the business is aggressive or violent towards one of your employees. This might include victims of domestic violence being attacked or threatened at work.

These are other types of workplace violence:

Violence in the Past

Violence in the workplace is frequently committed by workers and people with violent backgrounds. A history of violent behavior might include the destruction of property, as well as physical or verbal abuse toward previous employees, employers, a spouse, or strangers. The individual might or might not have a criminal history.

Physical or Mental Illness

Having a medical or mental disease can also lead to violence. Symptoms of the illness or adverse reactions to the person’s medications or therapies for their mental or physical condition could be the cause of the violence. The person may have trouble telling the difference between truth and fantasy and act violently in response to a genuine or imagined threat or grievance.

Addiction to Violence

People who are fascinated with discussing weapons of violence or violence in the media in a field unrelated to arms may harbor violent ideas and act on them. Using work computers to access web pages concerning guns or violence is one indication that a person’s curiosity has become an unhealthy fixation. An infatuated person might also bring a weapon to work to display to coworkers, even if he is aware that doing so is against company policy.

Addiction to Substances

Employees and individuals who have a substance abuse problem, such as a drug or alcohol addiction, may act violently at work. While high or drunk, a person may lose impulse control, get easily enraged, angry, or paranoid, or have a bodily reaction to a substance, leading to violent conduct.

Additional Precautions

The Government issues a warning that individuals who threaten or harass others, act increasingly belligerent, or exhibit a lack of emotional stability may turn violent. Extreme disarray and fixation with a coworker or workplace issue are further red flags. Employees who are having financial, family, legal, or romantic difficulties may also become violent.

Situations and Conditions at Work

Layoffs, firings, and another corporate restructuring, as well as understaffing and poor management, are workplace variables that might contribute to violent incidents. Employees may act violently out of frustration or rage when faced with unclear job requirements, poor job training, challenging employers, unpleasant work conditions, or an increase in accidents related to their jobs.

Making the Workplace Safer

Small business owners can increase workplace safety by hiring security to screen visitors and doing extensive criminal background and reference pre-employment checks to weed out individuals with histories of violence. Engaging staff members and directly addressing their issues might help lessen violence. Training that teaches workers how to handle stress better, handle disagreements more skillfully, enhance communication, and identify the signs and patterns of workplace violence can also be beneficial.

Violence in the workplace policy

Workplace violence policy — Source: designer491 / shutterstock

Any use of violence is unlawful, and the corporation will take harsh action against anyone caught engaging in such behavior. Workplace policies reflect the basic principles that a company represents, and they project a feeling of professionalism. Violence is a categorical “no,” just as narcotics, sexual assault, and workplace harassment are.

Intimidation, harassment, sexual assault, hostility, rage, or any physiological act carried out intending to hurt an employee or staff member are some of the behaviors that may contribute to violence. If an employee is found guilty of the same offense, depending on the seriousness of the circumstance, measures such as a permanent suspension from the workplace or judicial participation may be implemented.

The rules, guidelines, and other pertinent information that must be binding on all organization members are provided in this policy. It was designed to provide its employees with a secure, healthy, nonviolent, and sound work environment. It also includes those actions that might be taken against a worker or staff member if they are discovered to have engaged in any aggressive behavior.

Scope

All employees, as well as other members of the organization, must abide by this policy. If you are a new employee, you must acknowledge this policy before your working relationship begins. Any employee of this organization who is discovered to have violated this policy or committed a non-violent act will have their employment suspended or terminated permanently.

Actions that fuel violence

The policy outlines specific activities that are regarded to be violent. It forbids any employee or staff member from engaging in them to foster a thorough grasp of what constitutes violence. The following are some examples of behaviors that fuel workplace violence:

sexually abusive behaviors.
threatening a worker, his loved ones, or his friends.
the use of weapons, such as rifles, by aiming them at nearby coworkers.
pestering or stalking someone while keeping watch over them.
taking part in these domestic violence-related events
damaging the office building.
intentionally causing emotional, physical, or mental harm to another person.
acts of violence committed against company personnel or workers.

Procedures that must be used

The Human Resources and Management divisions of the organization are primarily in charge of taking appropriate action against violent activities. However, the policy takes into account the heavy workloads and avoids taxing such departments by dividing up duties among the staff.

Obligations of the employer

The employer shall have responsibility for:

Ensure that any terms and conditions listed in the policy are read and understood by the personnel.
Set up initiatives that educate staff members about what constitutes violence and how to abstain from it.
If an unfavorable event occurs on company property, accept responsibility.
Not discriminate between staff members or employees, and follow the policy’s mentioned actions.
Implement harsh penalties against any staff members or employees proven to have engaged in violence.
Suspend an employee’s or staff member’s tenure either temporarily or permanently.
obligations of the employee

Obligations of the employees

The policy lists specific actions that employees must take to protect themselves from all forms of violence. Such obligations consist of:

Call the emergency hotlines right away.
Respect the workplace violence policy.
Avoid inciting any violent behavior against the employee or other employees either within or outside of the workplace.
Follow emergency procedures when circumstances call for them.
If an unfavorable event occurs on company property, accept responsibility.
Not discriminate between staff members or employees, and follow the policy’s mentioned actions.
Implement harsh penalties against any staff members or employees proven to have engaged in violence.
Suspend an employee’s or staff member’s tenure either temporarily or permanently.
obligations of the employee

Emergency procedures

The policy lists specific actions that employees must take to protect themselves from all forms of violence. Such obligations consist of:

Call the emergency hotlines right away.
Respect the workplace violence policy.
Avoid inciting any violent behavior against the employee or other employees either within or outside of the workplace.
Follow emergency procedures when circumstances call for them.
Inform the appropriate authority of the violation.
Calling the police or an ambulance when there is an emergency
Dialing the emergency numbers while using the business phone system.

Causes of workplace violence

What is workplace violence?