Workplace Violence

Have you ever come to wonder if you are stressed out about something? Whenever I feel stressed, I reflect on both Emily Dickinson’s poem “I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain”, and the song “Stressed Out” by Twenty-One Pilots. Both the poem and the song share a common theme throughout tense situations.

The research of aggression in the work place is the focus of this paper. Taking an advanced look in how these behaviors can affect not only the employee but also that employee’s family.

The lateral violence comes in many forms and in many ways, such as abuse in the workplace that occur between colleagues, it can be verbal or nonverbal aggression, intimidation, bullying, harassment, discrimination, stereotyping, gossiping, criticism, and other related mistreatment behavior at work. Institutional lateral violence also happens between manager and subordinate where they can use their higher position to perpetrate assault to their subordinate such as acts of lasciviousness, shouting, anger outburst, forced overtime request, giving work beyond the job description, work overload, over blaming or insulting a staff and more. All these happen occasionally because of the lack of respect in the workplace and it comes without notice, especially in healthcare practices where the nature of work is tough and decision making must be made immediately.

The CCOHS defines workplace violence as any act in which a person is abused, threatened, intimidated or assaulted in his or her employment. This act of violence may include threatening behavior, harassment, verbal abuse, verbal or written threats, or physical attacks (CCOHS, 2016).

Hatred in the work environment breeds various issues for workers. For example, representatives working in a negative situation will probably discover issues with confidence and low profitability. Also, a negative work environment can prompt high representative turnover rates. To build energy in the work environment, workers must to make a positive workplace and do what it takes to maintain and cultivate this culture. According to Yoder-wise (2011), “the definition of violence includes overt and covert behavior ranging from offensive threatening language to homicide” (Yoder Wise, 2011, p.498). Violence can be noted as the general term that represents lateral aggression,

In Understand & Report the Signs of Workplace Violence, we discuss the warning signs of workplace violence

Abusive behaviours, such as bullying and horizontal violence is of huge concern in health care, especially in nursing. The prevalence is persistent and alarming. We are ill-equipped to deal with the issue head on. Exposure to violent behaviors in the workplace could damage individual nurses, quality of care, and the reputation of the organisation.

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What is workplace violence? The workplace is any place a worker performs a job, such as an office, hospital, parking lot, private residence or public building. Violence is defined as any act of aggression that causes physical or emotional harm, such as physical assault, rape, verbal abuse, threats and even sexual harassment. Type of assault would include pinching, biting, hitting, grabbing, kicking, or being struck by a weapon. Almost any object can be used as a weapon.

International Council of Nurses (ICN). (2007). Guidelines on coping with violence in the workplace. Geneva: ICN.

Violence in the workplace is becoming one of the fastest growing issues in today’s work environment. Workplace violence can include acts or threats of violence, harassment, aggressive behavior, intimidation of others or any unbecoming behavior that can lead to violence. It can range from idol threats to actual physical abuse and effects employees, clients, customers or visitors. This paper will discuss some statistics and give examples on workplace violence within today’s organizations.

Workplace violence refers to violence whether it is physical abuse or threat, endangering the health and safety of an employee or multiple employees. Workplace violence can be any violent act that occurs in the workplace by creating a hostile work environment that affects employees ' physical or psychological well-being. Violence in the workplace takes on many forms including: harassment, intimidation, threats, theft, stalking, assault, arson, sabotage, bombing, hostage taking, kidnapping, extortion, suicide, and homicide. All of these forms of violence have a common theme whereas the perpetrator is in control and his/her goal is retaliation. According to the CDC, “From 2003 to 2010 over half of the workplace homicides occurred within three occupation classifications: sales and related occupations (28%), protective service occupations (17%), and transportation and material moving

From 1980-1989 nearly 7,600 workers were workplace homicide victims in the United States. (3) In 1998 there were 6,026 fatal work injuries in the United States, 709 were workplace homicides. (2) Assaults and threats of violence at work equal almost 2 million a year. An average of 1.5 million a year for simple assault, 396,000 aggravated assaults, 51,000 rapes and sexual assaults, 84,000 robberies, and 1,000 homicides. The average risk rate for various occupation is as follows (per 1,000): Police officers 306, private security guards 218, taxi drivers 184, prison guards 117, bartenders 91, mental health professionals 80, gas station attendants 79, convenience, liquor store clerks 68, mental health custodial workers 63, junior high/middle school teachers 57, bus drivers 45, special education teachers 41, high school teachers 29, elementary school teachers 16, and college teachers 3. (2) All of these occupations have already been pre-identified as having a higher risk for workplace violence; however, there are ways to identify if your organization has potential risk factors.

Workplace violence is a form of violence that is perpetrated by disgruntled customers, employees or domestic violence that surfaces at a place of work. According to a monograph by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), workplace violence has evolved to include external attacks by terrorists. It shows that workplace violence is an emerging contemporary issue in the society that needs serious attention. Approximately, every year over two million incidents of workplace violence occur in the United States of America (Perline & Goldschmidst, 2004). The workplace violence cost the country 's economy nearly seventy billion dollars annually and over sixty-four billion due to loss of productivity. Workplace violence caught the nation 's attention in the late 1980s, and since then awareness has increased steadily. However, nearly 70 percent of businesses in the United States of America have no policy to address workplace violence. Thus making it difficult for employees to report an imminent danger, they usually seek assistance after the occurrences of the violent acts. According to an article by Morris (2015), the primary causes of workplace violence include psychological, societal, economic, and organizational disparities.

Workplace coarseness and violence are growing challenges for human resource development (HRD) professionals. The occurrence of violent behavior at work. The frequency, intensity, and duration of coarse behavior should be a concern to leaders in any organization. All too often seemingly isolated and incidents like, instigating a joke can lead to patterns of coarse behavior and it leads to bullying and even physical violence. Many researchers have noted numerous detrimental outcomes of workplace coarseness and violence. A coarse work environment may lead to poor employee health, low job satisfaction, low organizational productivity and commitment, high employee turnover, and poor application of learning at work. Each is a form of aggressive behavior. In as much as coarse behavior is linked to poor individual for e.g. job performance and organizational-level outcomes, human resource development (HRD) is increasingly being called to implement useful strategies for dealing effectively with this vital workplace issue.