http://www.facebook.com/pages/CFR-Mediation/271140287576
The term “Workplace Violence” means different things to people. Perhaps the range is influenced by professional backgrounds, personal experiences, as well as the purpose of definition. Coming for a behavioral health background, I am likely to define certain behaviors and interactions as examples of workplace violence, while others perhaps would not.
As an example, bullying among coworkers can, in my opinion, clearly fall under the term of workplace violence. The very definition a bully is: to treat abusively or to affect by means of force or coercion. This is not a benign act, even when there is no physical coercion.
It seems possible that the lack of observable behaviors or evidence of abuse, may cause some employers or HR personnel to turn a blind eye to some bullying, as so much of our handling conflict has to do with clear evidence of a wrong being committed. There is an inherent problem in approaching employee relations from this perspective: very often our most unpleasant interactions with others are not that black or white.
An employee (A) is asked by another to share her personal belongings. When she refuses, the other employee (B) starts a campaign of actively shunning her. For months the “A” is given the silent treatment and actively excluded from all interactions social or otherwise. “A” reports feeling helpless to impact the situation, as “B” refuses to engage in even minimal interaction. “A” feels that “B” is being extremely hostile to her in every glance and gesture, and suspects that she is spreading lies about her to co-workers. Regardless of the lack of evidenced violence “A” feels abused, and views her workplace as a place where she has to continually put-up the abusive behavior. Her supervisors and HR can do nothing as this does not fall under policy. “A” and “B” are still doing their jobs, although “A” may have called out a time or two simply because she could not face going to work.
This seems like a minor issue: a clash of personalities if you will. However, it illustrates how vulnerable employees are to feeling dis-empowered and victimized in the workplace.
Solid workplace violence policies and programs should address all forms of violence, and allow for intervention that is not evidence based. If the employer in the above example had such a program, the employees could have been referred to workplace mediation when the issue first occurred allowing them to resolve the issue or determine how to work around the conflict. The employer and HR would also have awareness into potential personnel issues while supporting their employees.
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Additional Reading:
- Workplace Bullying
- Conflict In Business Partnerships
- Did Workplace Bullying Result In Suicide?
- Employee Stress & Workplace Conflict
- NLRB Facebook Ruling
- UVA Exonerates Self In Workplace Bullying Incident
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Tags: bullying, Conflict Resolution, EMB, hr, mediation benefit, prevention, violence, workplace, workplace mediation, workplace violence
