Your Workplace May Be in Danger
Everyday, more workers are feeling increased pressure on the job and at home. As a result, they are feeling more stress, and when things at work go awry, many individuals seek revenge against their former employers. Work place violence is occurring with greater regularity, adding to the stress that you already experience.
Michael Mantel, in Ticking Bombs, suggests a seven-step approach for defusing work place violence. While you may have little or no control over instituting such measures, but for the purpose of completeness, here they are in summary:
1. Pre-employment screening — Undertake a thorough analysis of who your organization may hire and why. Call references. Check work dates. Talk to people on the phone; they will often reveal far more than they will on paper. Employment specialists say that up to two-thirds of all resumes and job application forms contain substantially misleading information. That, in itself, could be a reason not to employ someone.
2. Informed, aware management trained to see the early warning signs — The most potentially dangerous situation follows that of someone being laid off or fired.
3. Management understanding of the Golden Rule of employee treatment — In essence, this means to treat others as you would expect to be treated or, taking it a step further, treating others as they hope to be treated. That means respecting their individual needs and concerns and, to the degree practical, meeting them. You have a vested interest in their well-being, not simply as an employee, but as a person. Show genuine concern for their progress.
4. Education programs to teach employees and the organization how to respond to threatening interpersonal situations — there’s no substitute for education, especially when it comes to the incidence of employee violence. Most people instinctively do not know what to do when there’s an outburst or violent situation. There probably is no getting around bringing in a skilled professional organization to deal with such situations. As a rule, employees tend to not instinctively do the right thing, when confronted with a violent situation.
5. Counseling services for employees and their families for job and personal problems– This may seem like an expensive procedure, yet it can be far less costly in the long run if your organization is able to stop what could have been a potentially violent situation. Employees who are in the greatest need of counseling services most often are those who don’t seek them, or can’t afford them. Knowing that the organization provides such services can be a great relief to some employees. After all, it’s the place to let off steam, to talk to someone who knows how to dispense advice and assistance professionally. In addition, such counselors can serve as early warning monitors.
6. Proper security measures to protect the organization and employees — Who enjoys walking through metal detection devices, being frisked, or participating in drug testing? Yet these are becoming standard operating procedures in many organizations. If you’re among those who don’t resort to chemical dependence, bringing weapons into the work place, or engaging in violent activity whatsoever, then such procedures may at least provide some level of comfort or assurance. While the measures may be costly, initially, the long-term benefits in terms of having a work place that is able to operate on a relatively smooth basis, free of major disruption, can’t be downplayed.
7. Work place violence aftermath training — If an incident does take place, organizations in the know don’t allow things to “take care of themselves,” since they hardly ever do. After violent incidents an organization is not the same. People are paranoid, less trusting, more defensive, and just plain concerned. A violent incident can be highly traumatic even for those who weren’t involved, nearby, or present that day. Knowing that such an incident took place nearby can be enough to cause trauma for some. Organizations that have already invested a lot in their human resources, their people, need to recognize the importance of insuring that these valuable assets continue to work in an environment in which they feel free to be productive and relaxed.
This seven-step model doesn’t guarantee that work place violence will never happen in your organization–no approach can offer such a promise. However, it will go a long way in ensuring that your organization won’t be among those that unduly suffers from any unfortunate incidents.
Michael Mantel, in Ticking Bombs, suggests a seven-step approach for defusing work place violence. While you may have little or no control over instituting such measures, but for the purpose of completeness, here they are in summary:
1. Pre-employment screening — Undertake a thorough analysis of who your organization may hire and why. Call references. Check work dates. Talk to people on the phone; they will often reveal far more than they will on paper. Employment specialists say that up to two-thirds of all resumes and job application forms contain substantially misleading information. That, in itself, could be a reason not to employ someone.
2. Informed, aware management trained to see the early warning signs — The most potentially dangerous situation follows that of someone being laid off or fired.
3. Management understanding of the Golden Rule of employee treatment — In essence, this means to treat others as you would expect to be treated or, taking it a step further, treating others as they hope to be treated. That means respecting their individual needs and concerns and, to the degree practical, meeting them. You have a vested interest in their well-being, not simply as an employee, but as a person. Show genuine concern for their progress.
4. Education programs to teach employees and the organization how to respond to threatening interpersonal situations — there’s no substitute for education, especially when it comes to the incidence of employee violence. Most people instinctively do not know what to do when there’s an outburst or violent situation. There probably is no getting around bringing in a skilled professional organization to deal with such situations. As a rule, employees tend to not instinctively do the right thing, when confronted with a violent situation.
5. Counseling services for employees and their families for job and personal problems– This may seem like an expensive procedure, yet it can be far less costly in the long run if your organization is able to stop what could have been a potentially violent situation. Employees who are in the greatest need of counseling services most often are those who don’t seek them, or can’t afford them. Knowing that the organization provides such services can be a great relief to some employees. After all, it’s the place to let off steam, to talk to someone who knows how to dispense advice and assistance professionally. In addition, such counselors can serve as early warning monitors.
6. Proper security measures to protect the organization and employees — Who enjoys walking through metal detection devices, being frisked, or participating in drug testing? Yet these are becoming standard operating procedures in many organizations. If you’re among those who don’t resort to chemical dependence, bringing weapons into the work place, or engaging in violent activity whatsoever, then such procedures may at least provide some level of comfort or assurance. While the measures may be costly, initially, the long-term benefits in terms of having a work place that is able to operate on a relatively smooth basis, free of major disruption, can’t be downplayed.
7. Work place violence aftermath training — If an incident does take place, organizations in the know don’t allow things to “take care of themselves,” since they hardly ever do. After violent incidents an organization is not the same. People are paranoid, less trusting, more defensive, and just plain concerned. A violent incident can be highly traumatic even for those who weren’t involved, nearby, or present that day. Knowing that such an incident took place nearby can be enough to cause trauma for some. Organizations that have already invested a lot in their human resources, their people, need to recognize the importance of insuring that these valuable assets continue to work in an environment in which they feel free to be productive and relaxed.
This seven-step model doesn’t guarantee that work place violence will never happen in your organization–no approach can offer such a promise. However, it will go a long way in ensuring that your organization won’t be among those that unduly suffers from any unfortunate incidents.
Dealing with the Abusive Manager
What about the situation where you’re working for a boss who borders on the psychopathic? In his book, Brutal Bosses and Their Prey, author Harvey Hornstein, Ph.D., observes that for millions of workers, “the work place is like some nightmare school yard — a place where bosses shake down subordinates for their psyche’s lunch money and then stomp on their egos for sport.” Hornstein surveyed nearly a thousand men and women over an eight-year period and found that nearly 90% of the US work force has, at some point, been subjected to abusive behavior. “On any given day,” he says, “one out of five people gets abused by a boss.” The spread of monstrous behavior, sexual harassment of the crudest sort, physical and verbal threats, and all manners of inhumane acts, unfortunately, are on the increase.
“Feeling powerless,” says Hornstein, “they enforce their power over others; feeling frightened, they explode, piling abuses on their frightened subordinates; feeling small, they belittle others in the futile hopes that it will make them appear big.” Such bosses can help to trigger violent behavior on the part of those who might not have otherwise engaged in it. Employees who are victimized by brutal bosses can suffer from anxiety, depression, heart problems, gastrointestinal disorders, headaches, skin rashes, insomnia, and sexual dysfunction.
Some bosses use technology to spy on and torment their staff in ways previous generations never had to contend with. Electronic surveillance systems monitor and control behavior in ways that have crossed the boundaries of reason and respect. Predictably, violence has been on the increase in the face of such managerial abuse. In some organizations that have experienced murder in the work place, employees reported problems with their bosses “characterizing them as unfair, infantilizing, autocratic, and even physically abusive.” Violence begets violence.
Dr. Albert Ellis and Dr. Arthur Lange, in their book, How to Keep People from Pushing Your Buttons, say that as you get overly anxious, be it in the face of working for a brutal boss or otherwise, your mission is to recognize that such a person can’t get to you, unless you let them. Hornstein suggests taking stock of your situation. “Recognize the sins bosses commit and know the abusers for what they are.” Be alert for unwarranted behavior from the top and band together with others who are being abused. Also, if you’re being victimized, make sure you’re not brutalizing your own subordinates.
To take greater control of the situation, Ellis and Lange suggest figuring out what causes your reactions in the first place:
- The way you feel and how strongly, greatly influence how you’ll behave in a situation. If you get overly anxious, angry, or upset about how you’re being treated, you’ll suffer more intensely.
- In the case of a brutal boss, for example, it is not what is actually, verifiably true about this boss that counts, it’s what you think about him/her that largely determines how you wind up feeling and acting.
- Avoidance and denial about your situation are not useful short- or long-term situations. The problem is still there, and sure enough, will surface again.
- It’s unrealistic to expect that you can change your way of viewing the situation immediately, only by reading that it can be done.
- There’s nothing wrong with your feeling displeased, angry, concerned, or victimized.
- The key is to keep those feelings at a level where you aren’t making yourself utterly miserable and less effective.
- In the end, others don’t have control over how we feel about a situation, no matter how brutish they may act.
Others, including himself, were able to survive and ultimately flourish. He observes that such people had a larger purpose in life, perhaps it was someone they wanted to see should the camp ever be freed and the war be over. Some simply waited until the day in which they could get revenge on the guards. In his classic book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl says that regardless of what kind of treatment he received, he resolved that the guards and the setting would have no effect on how he chose to feel internally — his regard for his fellow prisoners, loved ones he wanted to see again, or his faith in humanity.
You’re not expected to be a saint, but these are certainly words worth pondering, particularly if you’re in a setting where the potential for workplace violence exists.
