Violence Is Common at the Workplace

According to a recent scientific study, nearly one in three employers, more than 33 percent in total, complain that they have had problems with staff being attacked at the workplace at least once over the past years. The situation is alarming, especially considering the fact that the largest portion of those who have been victims of aggressions have been doctors, nurses, or people who deal with public transportation, such as buses, subways, and commuter trains.

The Healthy Work Group was behind the new, independent survey, an initiative belonging to the Massey University. It's now widely believed that this is the first study of its kind to identify such a serious issue, and also the first to try to find potential answers to it. In truth, nobody in the US knows today the full extent and range of aggressive behavior at the workplace, a status quo that cannot remain unchecked, employees say.

Other than the damage to property and to workers' health, such a state of affairs also encourages less commitment and involvement in one's profession, which, in the end, inevitably leads to more conflicts, as regular citizens are dissatisfied with the quality of services provided to them. What's more weird is that some attack their doctors, which in any civilized society wouldn't make any kind of sense. Furthermore, medics at free clinics are often beaten, even if they work there for low wages or simply as volunteers.

“There is a big problem and businesses are not understanding the problem or the need to report it effectively. It was surprising to find that no-one had carried out an independent survey into this before. There is a level of awareness in organizations where they have had a lot of problems in the past. But our goal is to encourage everyone to address this issue,” Tim Bentley, Massey university associate professor, who has collaborated for this study with Dr. Bevan Catley and Dr. Duncan Jackson, says.

“Workplace violence has been found to be a major cause of serious harm and death in the US and other Westernized countries. Despite several high profile incidents of workplace violence, the nature and extent of the problem in New Zealand remains largely unknown – this study begins to redress that,” Catley adds.

“We want to focus on working with industries to understand what they are doing and identify best practice for prevention of violence in the workplace,” Dr. Bentley concludes.