When Words Fail: Workplace Violence and Communication

A bad situation nearly became worse when a man was headed to his landlord, Hewatt Co., with a gun. Thankfully his brother alerted police and he was only able to harm himself. This is often not the case when anger turns to violence at the workplace.

A survey of 1000 employees was taken and 50% of these have either witnessed, heard about, or have been the victim of a violent event. Much of the cause is being placed on the rise of unemployment. Part of the problem is that this behavior often goes unreported and when it is, less than half of employers took disciplinary action.

There are three primary reasons employees get angry. “This situation is unfair, out of my control, or personal because it’s happening to me.” There are warning signs to watch for and should be taken seriously and reported immediately.

This employee may start to act out by talking negative or making threatening comments about their job, the company, or another employee. He may have a substance abuse and/or martial problem. He’ll start to display bullying tendencies, hostility, harassments or even verbal assaults. He will often have abusive or vulgar language and will make idle threats. A potential violent employee will usually announce “what’s going to happen”. These behaviors should be reported not only to management but also to the police. All to often people just turn there heads and nothing is done until something really bad happens, then it’s too late. Violence in the work place affects all employees. Moral suffers and work becomes a miserable place to be and what soon follows is finding employment elsewhere. Do not allow this person to control your life, report him!