Workplace violence becomes a fact of life
By Jeany Llorente
El Paso Times
Every day millions of people go to work with hostile attitudes.
They yell, throw objects and, in worse cases, commit physical violence against co-workers.
Prevention tips
Some ways employers can help prevent workplace violence:
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Develop workplace safety guidelines
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Consider buying workplace safety insurance
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Identify and document high-risk behavior in employees
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Properly screen new and potential employees
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Train management to deal with customer or employee complaints
Who's at risk?
Some signs that employees, customers, stalkers or others might commit workplace violence:
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Direct or veiled threats of harm
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Intimidating, belligerent, harassing, bullying or other inappropriate and aggressive behavior
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Numerous conflicts with supervisors and other employees
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Bringing a weapon to the workplace, brandishing a weapon in the workplace or making inappropriate references to guns or fascination with weapons
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Statements showing fascination with incidents of workplace violence, statements indicating approval of the use of violence to resolve a problem or statements indicating identification with perpetrators of workplace homicides
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Drug or alcohol abuse
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Extreme changes in behavior
In a study conducted by Integra Realty Resources, a real-estate counseling firm based in New York, one in 10 people say he or she works in an atmosphere where physical violence has occurred because of stress.
In the same study, 29 percent of those polled admit to having yelled at co-workers because of stress, 23 percent say they have been driven to tears because of workplace stress, and 14 percent said they work where machinery or equipment has been damaged through workplace rage.
The seeming rash of violence in the workplace in recent years, including the 1999 multiple murder in a Honolulu Xerox office, has made office rage a topic of strong concern to many.
Eleven percent of workers in the study say workplace stress is a major problem for them, making them candidates for outbursts of desk rage.
Sadie Bispham, a legal secretary in the law office of Carlos Villa in El Paso, Texas, says she has seen anger in the workplace within the past couple of years.
"If you are observant to the signs, people should approach or at least attempt to approach (stressed-out workers) so it won't get to that point," Bispham says. Employers "should show concern without prying or being overly intrusive.
"I think what has happened is that companies and businesses used to have a family atmosphere, now they are cold and hard," says Bill Myers, head of the Depressive and Manic Depressive Association in El Paso. "We work in a very sterile environment."
People have become very resentful and very competitive, he says, and they lack the power to get rid of the anger or problems.
Gerald Bryan, an El Paso clinical psychologist, says when people become angry at work, it can reflect their anger at life for being so complicated.
"I haven't seen a whole lot of just (desk rage). It's not just because they are angry at their computers, but across their lives," he says. "The problem is not work, the problem is the attitude about frustration ... the person's attitude about the pressure."
