Posted on: Tuesday, November 6, 2001

Island Voices
We must be alert to workplace violence

By Gary M. Farkas
Licensed psychologist and organizational consultant

At the two-year anniversary of Byran Uyesugi's massacre of seven co-workers at his office, it is important to reflect on what has happened in Hawai'i since that tragic example of workplace violence.

Unfortunately, the Uyesugi incident was not isolated. Over the past decade, there have been an average of 1,200 reported acts of workplace violence per year in Hawai'i. Thankfully, the great majority of these cases do not lead to death or serious injury.

Since the Uyesugi massacre, many positive steps have been taken that promote health and safety in the workplace. At many companies, management has increased training of supervisors and line personnel, and has implemented comprehensive workplace violence policies and procedures.

With the greater awareness of the risk of danger that some people present, innovative efforts have sprung from the community. Early this year, the state attorney general's office convened a panel of local experts, who authored a very comprehensive workplace violence manual.

This effort was funded by the Hawai'i Community Foundation's fund for Victims of Violent Crimes in Hawai'i, and the manual was recently released in hard-copy, CD-ROM and Web-based (cpja.ag.state.hi.us/workplaceviolence) formats. Organizations both large and small would be advised to research this document.

With distance from a tragedy, people often become less vigilant and return to their comforting routines. For six months after the 1996 incident involving Hawai'i's John Miranda, many people and organizations were extremely concerned about workplace violence risks. Unfortunately, after that time period, other concerns dominated and workplace violence was not a top priority.

For some time after Uyesugi's massacre, his actions caused the radar screen to come alive with reports of workplace violence concerns. Thankfully, organizations and their employees appear to have remained attentive to the remaining risks.

For organizations to remain free of dramatic incidents of workplace violence, the price of security is eternal vigilance. Every employee has to be part of an early warning network, aware of unusual behaviors that could signal the risk of violence.