What is Workplace Violence?
As you develop your workplace violence prevention program, it is crucial to ensure you and your employees are ‘on the same page’ regarding the meaning of workplace violence, as it is not always a violent act. Our definition is: ”Behaviors, including assaults and threats which occur in or are related to the workplace and entail a risk of physical or emotional harm to individuals or damage to an organization’s resources or capabilities."
More specifically, at a minimum, it includes:
Actual violence that causes or is intended to cause injury or harm to a person or property
Threatening remarks and/or behavior in which intent to harm is stated or implied or indicates a lack of respect for the dignity and worth of an individual.
Behavior causing concern or anxiety to others in a workplace that may lead to hazardous conduct, such as domestic (intimate partner) violence, suicide, or changes in behaviors – positive or negative.
Mobbing, bullying, emotional or verbal abuse
Possession of a weapon while working or on company property
From a legal viewpoint, workplace violence is generally governed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a division of the Department of Labor. Under OSHA’s General Duty Clause, employers are required to provide a safe work environment free of known hazards for employees.
Since workplace violence has been recognized as a ‘known hazard,’ the courts have offered the following definitions to help clarify when hazards must be considered. When hazards:
create a ‘significant risk’ to employees in other than “a freakish or utterly implausible concurrence of circumstances,”
are known to the employer and are considered hazards in the employer’s business or industry
are one’s employers can reasonably be expected to prevent.
We should further point out workplace violence is unique as a workplace hazard because, unlike other hazards, it does not involve a work process but instead an act committed by a person. Because an individual commits workplace violence, the definition has been grouped into one of the following categories when a violent act is committed in the workplace or while a person is performing their job:
an individual (stranger) that has no legitimate relationship with an employee or the employer, e.g., a robber of a convenience store
an employee or ex-employee
an individual that is or has been a client, customer, contractor, vendor, or has had a legitimate relationship with the employer
an individual with an intimate, family, or other relationship with an employee.
Keep this information in mind as you build your workplace violence prevention program.
