Getting serious about violence

From the Orange County Register – December 3, 2001
By Jan Norman

Companies need to develop a risk-assessment plan and train workers and supervisors to spot signs of potential trouble.

In the weeks following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, security experts were inundated with phone calls from companies experiencing significant increases in workplace behavior problems.

Spokesmen for Orange County sheriff and police departments said their statistics of violent crimes in the workplace haven't increased noticeably. But anecdotal evidence suggests security consultants aren't imagining the change.

Rand in Santa Monica reported that 44 percent of U.S. adults reported one or more substantial symptoms for stress in the days after the attacks. (Numerous studies have linked stress to violence.)

Korn/Ferry, an executive-search firm, reported a 100 percent increase in corporations seeking to hire a security director. Businesses may have to cope with threats that range from an argumentative employee to a threatening customer to an armed robber to a bomb-toting terrorist.

Laguna Hills industrial psychologist Maryam Malek, who hosts a radio program on workplace issues that airs 10 p.m. Sundays on KRLA/870AM, has noticed a big increase in calls about behavior problems ranging from poor concentration to anger to panic attacks.

Sept. 11 may have ignited stress and anger in the workplace, at home and on the street. The problem isn't unique to postattack trauma and is likely to continue because of the worsening economy, experts say. Companies may not be able to prevent violence outside their buildings, but they need to be proactive to ward off aggression inside the workplace.

Workplace stress is neither good nor bad, says Bruce Sanders, an organizational psychologist and instructor at UC Irvine Extension. "It's when stress is excessive that it can lead to violence. You have to find ways to resolve interpersonal conflicts: improved communication, physical exercise."

Anxiety and stress can lead to strange work behavior, says Ron Williams, chief executive of Talon Executive Services in Fountain Valley.

"There's a direct correlation between stress and violence," he says. "If a person has a tendency to be assaultive and angry, stress causes him to resort to violent behavior."

Williams is currently working with a company that has received a number of bomb threats, which he thinks were triggered by layoffs and that increased after the terrorist attacks.

Violence is a process, Williams says, starting with the person becoming argumentative, alienating peers and swearing excessively. Then the behavior escalates to more-frequent arguing, general lack of respect and disregard for policies, threats and blaming others for his or her own actions. If unchecked, the behavior culminates in physical confrontations, display of weapons and assault, arson or suicide.

"There are several danger signals (including) fascination with weapons, substance abuse, drastic changes in psychological functioning, decreased or inconsistent productivity, social isolation and poor personal hygiene," he says.

Greater awareness of the problem may be one reason for the increased calls to security experts and trainers, says Barry Nixon, president of the National Institute for the Prevention of Workplace Violence.

"I usually have to overcome (corporate) apathy about the potential of violence," he says. "I'm now getting calls from people who put workplace-violence training on the back burner who are finding the money to address the issue despite the economy."

And some of the post-Sept. 11 problems were caused by people looking for an excuse for inappropriate workplace behavior, says Dana Picore, head of Picore & Associates, a Sherman Oaks executive protection firm. After the attacks she was called in by several companies to assess the magnitude of risk posed by threats and aggressive behavior by employees.

"I saw an increase in (workplace) incidents, a lot of hoaxes," she says. "There are areas in California (where businesses received) hundreds and hundreds of bomb threats in the two or three weeks after 9-11.

"But even if they're not real, you have to evacuate, and that creates a hostile work environment." That type of reaction has tapered off, says Picore, a former police officer and licensed therapist, says, but it underscores the need for companies to develop a plan to deal with the potential for workplace violence.

"Most companies don't report such workplace violence as threats, intimidation, harassment, stalking, an employee punching someone," she says.

Even if they don't report such cases to local police, she adds, they should develop a workplace violence policy and train managers not only to cope with such actions, but also to spot potential troublemakers before they're hired.

"You need to have clear rules for dealing with inappropriate behavior," she says. The employee handbook is the place to spell out a zero- tolerance policy for violence, says business attorney Edwin Brown of Genson, Even, Crandall & Wade in Irvine.

"You want to state that you won't tolerate any harassment, verbal or physical abuse," he says. "Those will be investigated and taken seriously. That handbook should be given to every employee."

Companies should provide referrals to help a troubled employee, Malek says. "If an employee has behavior problems, make sure (he/she) get some professional help: an employee assistance program or trained (human-resources) person. One of my corporate clients requires employees to get help and requires a note (from the counselor) before they can go back to work."

But such employees may not ask for help. So it is important for managers to be trained to spot potential trouble, Picore says.

"What you do depends on your policy," Picore says. "You should form a threat-assessment team of the security director, HR person, manager, legal counsel. They investigate whether the company can handle (a specific situation) or needs to call in an expert."

If Picore is brought in, she interviews people involved in the problem and may do psychological testing to determine if the person is violent. Her recommendations might range from counseling to termination.

Williams also recommends that companies set up a toll-free phone number and post-office box to which employees can make confidential reports of workplace threats.

"Some people won't tell the boss, but they will call a third party," he says.

For more information on dealing with violence, visit our certificate page for Conflict Management and Dispute Resolution.