As we interact with a lot of people in different businesses, we continue to be amazed at the number of businesses that do not know about this problem or do not want to know about this problem.
One director of a large organization of various businesses was completely unaware of the problem among their members. This is amazing since the statistics show that problems like bullying and sexual harassment are occurring in way over 50% of the organizations in our country. Apparently none of the businesses in this organization feel it is important to think about and discuss.
When business leaders turn their backs on this problem and try to avoid it, they are putting their people at unnecessary risk and costing their owners a lot of wasted money. This ignorance or indifference results in tolerating bad behavior like the lack of respect among all the people. With a culture of disrespect, bullying and harassment people avoid talking together about the important issues they are facing. No new ideas are generated. Learning stops. Frustration and violence build. This sort of indifference creates the culture where people are afraid and do as little as possible. Over time, a person who has suffered years of bullying or harassment can very easily become your home-grown active shooter. Management shares a lot of responsibility for this breakdown.
Understanding workplace violence prevention means leaders need to look at both the physical safety/security side and the psychological safety side of one’s business, organization and teams. Call us 716-622-6467 to learn more or send me an email.
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