June 30, 2013|By DANIEL J. HERSH | Davidsville
Taken from Daily American
In part 1 of Preventing Violence in the Workplace, we looked at the benefits of taking a proactive approach to violence and the role of attitude in its implementation.
We begin Part 2 by looking at language and violence. Nearly every physical assault involving employees is associated with inflammatory language, and I can’t say that I’ve ever seen a violent act not preceded by offensive words. So it is imperative that abusive language be considered a likely preamble to violence.
Note how supervisors talk to workers. You may have seen it before: an overbearing supervisor making degrading comments to a worker. Even people who are otherwise easygoing can respond violently in the presence of arrogant language. To an employee witnessing belittlement, it is a red flag; it may be necessary to report it to a higher authority.
How workers talk to one another is no less important. The use of uncontrollable profanity should be prohibited, and those who use racial slurs should be held to account.
An unusual use of language, and one especially incited to violence, is when one employee uses abusive comments in a conversation with a third, neutral employee with the intention they be heard by the employee targeted for abuse, who is present. No one viewing this display should be surprised when those words lead to physical violence.
And what happens when words are unspoken yet posted somewhere at the work site, veiled messages ridiculing a supervisor or worker? An entire workforce can become engaged.
“To whom does the message refer,” they ask? A supervisor identified may become repressive and dictatorial in response, ratcheting up tensions; a worker identified may respond unpredictably.
Along with situations targeting a vulnerable employee come unavoidable situations affecting many at the workplace: layoffs from a slowdown in an industry, jobs lost because of the closure of a company or transfers to a distant branch of the firm. Good employees can become depressed; you may have detected their anxiety about the future; perhaps you may have thwarted an attack by informing others about what you’ve observed.
Another company- wide problem out of the hands of an employee is an ineffective Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Sometimes they fail to intervene on behalf of a troubled employee when an employee needs time to deal with problems, time away from the job, time to lessen stress. Time can be provided, despite the inconvenience to managers.
Unavoidable circumstances in one’s personal life, like a serious illness or accident, can make some workers act impulsively when returning to work. Have you ever welcomed back to your work unit an employee having gone through the ordeal of lifesaving chemotherapy for cancer, or one having spent time in the hospital after a serious accident? Both may have little tolerance for petty squabbles engaged in that have the potential for violent behavior. Preventing it may only require being more sensitive to what they’ve gone through.
Unavoidably too, workers must take the jobs made available. Some jobs require the worker to work alone most of the time. If you’ve ever been a worker on the road, you know how spending long hours at work alone can allow you to think deeply about things, perhaps mull over an insult from a supervisor or worker that may have occurred hours or days before. Fellow employees should look for changes in the mood or behavior of a worker isolated and vengeful.
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