HR Management & Compliance

Workplace Violence: Warning Signs to Watch For … What to Do if You See Them


Workplace violence is increasing, especially against employers. Here’s an article … and a special audio conference … to help keep it from happening at your organization.


What, after motor vehicle accidents, would you think would be the greatest cause of death in the workplace? Falls from construction sites perhaps? Or work with dangerous chemicals? In fact, it’s homicide, the most extreme expression of workplace violence.


While homicides grab the headlines, workplace violence is more common than many might think. Each year, 1 of every 20 workplaces reports a violent episode.


One form of violence … that directed against employers … is increasing, according to the National Safe Workplace Institute. “Until late 1992, there was an average of one employer-directed homicide per month in the United States,” notes the Institute. “Recently that has escalated to an average of 5 or 6 monthly.”



Let two experts brief you on the critical issues surrounding workplace violence at a special September 27 audio conference. Train your entire staff for one low fee. Click for info.



Violence on the job is not always a product of those within it. It can enter from outside in the form of angry customers or vendors, or more commonly, from disputes in an employee’s private life. Perpetrators of domestic violence frequently attack at work, as that’s where they’re certain their victims need to be.


The most controllable and preventable form of workplace violence, however, is that caused by your employees. Unlike a threat that comes in off the street, you’re in a position to observe them, and look for potential warning signs, as well as to take pre-emptive action before violence occurs. What to look for, and what to do when you see it, effectively and legally, will be the subject of a special 90-minute September 27 BLR audio conference, titled Workplace Violence: How to Recognize the Signs and Keep Your Employees Safe on the Job. Here’s a sampling of what you’re likely to hear about as you listen in:


–Jobs most at risk. As you might expect, security personnel, both public and private, are a common target, but so are those who deal with people in crisis, such as healthcare personnel. Those handling cash or working alone, especially at night, share an increased risk.


–Situations most likely to lead to violence. These can include anything that stresses a volatile personality, including termination, discipline, or even the perception of unfair treatment, justified or not. Be alert also for conflict between co-workers and in workers’ personal lives.


–Signs of violence. Potentially violent employees throw up “red flags.” Look for anger, abusive language, talk about weapons and “getting even,” and of course, outright threats. Substance abuse is also a strong contributing factor.


What do you do should these signs appear? Obviously, every threat must be taken seriously and reported to the proper channels. And if the threat is from the outside … from a spurned ex-spouse, for example, it’s essential to ensure access to your facility is secured. If it comes from an ex-employee who had keys or entry codes, consider changing the locks.



Phone in or e-mail your specific questions on workplace violence and get a personal answer at BLR’s special 90-minute September 27 audio conference. Click to register or pre-order the CD.



There are, however, legalities to be observed. Worker rights must be protected, agencies alerted in certain cases, and all of it done with a consciousness that, should you overreact, you could be looking at legal problems.


Whatever you do should not be done on an ad hoc basis. You need a strong antiviolence policy and a plan for what to do should an incident occur, both in advance of it happening.


This article only touches the surface of a potentially very serious issue for your workplace. We strongly recommend the upcoming September 27 audio conference to get the details you need, as well as a chance to have your personal e-mailed and phoned in questions answered by the two presenting experts. As always, your satisfaction is assured and you can train as many of your people as can fit around a speakerphone. Also, if the time is inconvenient to attend, you may pre-order a CD of the session. These options are available by clicking on the links on this page.




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1 thought on “Workplace Violence: Warning Signs to Watch For … What to Do if You See Them”

  1. This article is funny in light of yesterday’s article about the top ten things that make employees angry. I hightly doubt that one of the tep ten: talking too loudly in the next cubicle, is going to cause someone to pull a gun an shoot his employer. So with workplace violence increasing as this article suggests there must be a more significant underlying cause.

    Another thing I think makes employees angry are these Performance Self-Evaluations. They have enough to do without having to do their manager’s job of Performance Evaluations. Pushing the evaluations down to the employee’s self, is only taking the task off the manager’s plate. Then on top of that, they are told they can’t mark themselves a rating of 5 because no one is perfect – there’s always room for improvement. Why should an employee try to be a 5 when the company’s culture won’t recognize him/her as a 5? Striving for continuous improvement when there isn’t continuous merit increases, let alone annual cost of living raises, makes employees angry.

    I recently read a report on IT salaries. The report said, good Unix Administrators can make six figures. Typical range right around $100,000. Well, back in the early 90’s a good Unix Administrator could make six figures, again, around $100,000. What makes an employee in the IT department angry is the fact that in 1992 the national average home price was $122,500. In 2004 the average was $264,540 – more than doubled. Yet, no one’s salary more than doubled – not amoung the employee ranks anyways.

    Compound on top of that the frustration and stress of maintaining a competitive edge when more and more jobs are going overseas, making jobs less available here in the States. In the last couple years nearly 25% of programmer jobs have gone overseas. Technology changes very rapidly. There’s statistics which show that only 30% of what an IT professional knows today will be relevent 18 months from now. That’s a lot of skill development that needs to take place in a year and a half, just to keep pace. And employers aren’t helping. There never seems to be dollars in the training budget.

    If employers stopped paying 23-28% on top of the IT professional salaries for these cheesey web-surfing recruiters who don’t have a clue what the job descriptions even mean, then maybe they would have a training budget. Again, employers want continuous improvement but are unwilling to continuously make training available to their employees.

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