Workplace violence can be defined as any action that can threaten the safety of an employee, impact the employee's psychological or physical well being, or cause damage to a company's property.
Workplace violence can be defined as any action that can threaten the safety of an employee, impact the employee’s psychological or physical well being, or cause damage to a company’s property. Workplace violence is not often talked about, but it does kill people. In the last decade it has become one of the leading causes of deaths in the workplace.
The University of Iowa Prevention Center has broken down workplace violence into four categories. The first being (Type I) Criminal Intent, this is when a criminal displays violent behavior toward an employee. He/she has no association with the business or the employees. The person is usually committing a crime in combination with the violence. This type accounts for 85% of workplace violence. An example of this would be when two men entered a Wendy’s in Flushing, New York with the intent to steal from the establishment. Seven employees were shot, five of them died. I am currently employed by the North Syracuse School district as an aide for summer school. I personally do not think Type I Criminal Intent will affect me in my working environment for a number a reasons. First, I do not work with or have direct access to money. Money is many type I offender’s motive. Next, I do not work alone at any point in the day. I work in a well lit room with three other adults. I also work in the morning, and it is a known fact that a majority of crimes occur in evening hours. Lastly, the suburbs of North Syracuse would not be considered a high crime area. On the contrary I have heard stories that a burglar has broken into the school when it was locked to steal computers. Therefore, I should not get too comfortable because there always could be a potential threat of violence
