RAF MILDENHALL, England -- Recent events at Fort Hood, Texas, and the Washington D.C. Navy Yard, show workplace violence is alive and ever evolving.
These events validate that workplace violence can happen. To detect this type of violence, we must first understand the meaning of this term and its indicators.
Workplace violence can be defined as any act of physical violence against people or property, physical or verbal threats, intimidation, harassment or other inappropriate, disruptive behavior causing fear for personal safety in the workplace.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has four broad categories of workplace violence:
Type 1: Violent acts by criminals, who have no other connection with the workplace, but enter to commit robbery or another crime.
Type 2: Violence directed at employees by customers, clients, patients, students, inmates or any others for whom an organization provides services.
Type 3: Violence against coworkers, supervisors, or managers by a present or former employee.
Type 4: Violence committed in the workplace by someone who doesn't work there, but has a personal relationship with an employee, such as an abusive spouse or domestic partner.
Different actions in the workplace can cause violence. For example, anger over disciplinary actions or the loss of a job, resistance by a customer, or disagreement by a member of the public with policies or practices can lead to violent acts. It may even be the result of non-work-related situations, such as domestic violence, "road rage," or hate crimes due to intolerance, bigotry, intentionally trying to hurt or physically intimidate people because of their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation or preference, or disability.
Workplace violence can be inflicted by an abusive employee, a manager, supervisor, co-worker, customer, family member or even a stranger.
To prepare, each organization should have some type of workplace-violence action plan, which should be provided to all personnel in the organization and practiced, tested and reevaluated. The plan should address how to detect signs, who to report concerns to, and what actions to take during and after an incident.
The FBI guide, "Workplace-Violence," and the Department of Defense guide,"Defense Civilian Personnel Advisory Service Guide: Workplace Violence Prevention and Response," are both available from your organization's anti-terrorism representative.
These manuals provide tools on indicators and precautionary actions to take in the event you experience workplace violence or think you may be susceptible to workplace violence.
For more information, call the 100th ARW Anti-Terrorism Office at DSN 238-3127 or commercial at 01638-543127.