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Cubicle Conniptions
December 10, 2007
You thought road rage was bad—how about cubicle rage? With workplace anger on the rise, preventive programs may be all that stands between you and a fist darting towards your nose.
By Terri Howard
Workplace violence is increasingly common in offices, and it isn't limited to physical injury or assault, but includes any act in which a person is abused, threatened, intimidated or assaulted at his or her place of employment. Thirty-three thousand workers are assaulted on the job each week in the U.S., and 17 employees are murdered, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
This workplace crisis results in lost productivity, low morale, legal costs and employee turnover. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the annual cost of violence in the workplace is about $13.5 billion in medical expenses, and the absence of 500,000 workers from 1.75 million days of work.
Stopping violence before it starts is critical to decreasing the prevalence of this alarming trend. Training programs can be used to prevent workplace violence, and teach effective methods for handling and defusing potentially dangerous situations. The Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI), which offers the PrepareTraining Program (PTP), uses a train-the-trainer module in which CPI experts instruct and certify individuals through lectures, group work, practice teaching, and instructional testing. Upon completion, participants are certified to teach the foundation course within their organization. In addition to investing in a formal workplace violence prevention course for your trainers, try the following measures to make your office a little less pugnacious:
• Adopt and implement policies and procedures outlining expectations for all levels of the organization about respectful, service oriented and safe interactions toward both customers and employees.
• Provide skill building training that helps employees demonstrate they know how to be respectful, provide quality service even in the most difficult circumstances and respond sensibly to disruptive and violent situations.
• Implement an ongoing training process that provides additional knowledge and practice in translating safe workplace corporate values into everyday behavior.
• Empower employees to apply violence prevention concepts realistically within their specific work environment.
• Audit the impact of training in effectively reducing the frequency and intensity of disruptive and dangerous incidents.
Terri Howard is vice president of corporate preparedness for the Crisis Prevention Institute’s PrepareTraining Program (PTP). Howard was previously manager in the corporate office of the Target Corporation. She was responsible for corporate efforts in workplace violence prevention, crisis management and business continuity. To learn more about PTP, and other training programs available, visit www.preparetraining.com, or call 800-787-5166.
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