Off Topic? Maybe Not – The Culture of Violence

The sports world is still reeling today over the tragedy of a murder/suicide involving a member of the Kansas City Chiefs football team. For the most part, the on-air broadcasters handled themselves with dignity and respect in covering this as a major news story unfolding in the same space as the national obsession with NFL football competition. With the exception of Bob Costas who chose to interrupt NBC’s Sunday Night Football with the non-sequitur of a far left political rant on imposing gun control to solve all of our problems, most of the commentary was appropriate to the situation where words cannot adequately cover the shock, grief and reality of life. Bringing this closer to home, we all must recognize that this is not an uncommon occurrence in our society. Domestic violence is a serious problem that is often ignored or covered up until a high profile incident grabs our attention for a few days. Rather than search for real answers that might involve suggesting some sort of enhanced morality or ethics, we take the more politically correct approach of whitewashing events to make them less offensive and then closing our eyes until the images go away.

While globally there is a recognized problem of violence in the workplace, in the U.S. the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) of 1970 requires that employers provide their employees with a place of employment that “is free from recognizable hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious harm to employees.” Court cases continue to unfold reinforcing that this general duty clause means that an employer has a legal obligation to provide a workplace free of conditions the employer, industry or government regulators recognizes as hazardous. There is an inherent responsibility of all employers to eliminate anything that could be likely to cause, death or serious physical harm to employees when there is a feasible method to abate the hazard. It gets a little fuzzy when that hazard is in reality the people employed by the company. Most companies are not armed with the knowledge to handle situations where external violence oozes its way into the culture of the company.

Wake up! – If the company does not audit risks that may exist to cause harm to employees then there will be personal and legal consequences. Expanding our horizons to include emotional spills as well as chemical spills as a hazard to employees should be a routine function of management even if it is outside of the scope of the law. The NFL, team owners, coaches, and players should be examining the culture of a violent sport and the consequences of spillover into personal tragedy. To the rest of us, it really does matter if there is a mental instability in an employee and how we deal with it.

Look up! – Planning for the worst and hoping for the best probably won’t work, but ignoring the fact that contingency plans for handling an outbreak of violence is a necessity is even worse. There should not be an employer anywhere that does not institute some sort of policy about preventing workplace violence and reacting immediately to emergency situations. No office environment that involves people interaction is immune to the risk. Planning for and creating anti-bullying programs is just as important as recognizing anti-terrorism in providing a safe work environment.

Act up! – All employees from the top box on the organization chart to the very bottom layer must all be trained observers to prevent violence. Training on company policy is a bare minimum requirement and most employees would appreciate being armed with the knowledge of how they can personally protect themselves and their coworkers. There cannot be a corporate culture of non-violence if there is not a concerted effort on the part of management to create and maintain such an environment. No-fault whistle-blowing rules or information hot lines insure communication of problems. Most importantly, the availability of support programs to those who are in need must be advertised and on public display in prominent locations.

Shape up! – A zero tolerance policy on workplace terrorism is essential. The best laid plans and training programs will amount to nothing if there is not a gutsy enforcement of the rules. Those who look away from dangerous situations are just as guilty as those who perform those acts of violence. Mandatory referral to outside counseling or psychiatric sources or involving law enforcement authorities to resolve issues may seem to be extreme, but the mandate to keep employees free from harm would seem to demand nothing less.

Participating in the debate on how to resolve the problem of domestic and workplace violence is a social responsibility. It takes more than laws, policies and rules to improve our culture. We know from our other failures that we cannot legislate morality. This problem is caused by people. Only people working together can find a solution.