Workplace Deaths Decline, Co-Worker Homicides Rise - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

First it was road rage. Then airline rage. Now desk rage. A survey I saw the other day suggests that more than 40 percent of American workers have witnessed shouting incidents between co-workers.

In the United Kingdom--whose population is generally viewed as more polite than Americans--another survey showed that nearly 30 percent of employees have had some sort of confrontation at work.

These findings, combined with government statistics on workplace violence, are a legitimate cause for concern, for you as an HR professional and as an employee.

The numbers point clearly in one direction: While it's less likely than a few years ago that you'll die on the job, it is becoming more likely that if you do, the person in the next cubicle will be responsible.

Workplace deaths from any cause are down. Between 1994 and 1999, on-the-job fatalities declined by 9 percent, to 6,023, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Data for 2000 are not yet available.)

The deaths in 1999 included 631 homicides. As in other years, robberies were the leading cause and taxi drivers were the primary victims. But 68 of the murders were committed by co-workers.

In 1998, there were 683 workplace homicides, 66 of them by co-workers. Co-workers committed 61 of 812 workplace homicides in 1997.

So over a period in which on-the-job murders declined by 22 percent, the proportion of homicides by co-workers has jumped from 7.5 percent to nearly 11 percent.

And these statistics don't include the thousands of non-fatal confrontations between employees that can lead to lost days, increased healthcare expenses, loss of productivity, low morale and increased stress.

There are steps you can take to make your workplace safer. Philip S. Deming, an HR and security-risk consultant in King of Prussia, Pa., wrote in an SHRM White Paper last October that one of the first steps in preventing workplace violence is making sound hiring decisions.

Deming cited a 2000 study of violence within the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), which concluded: "The common denominator among 14 of the 15 assailants studied was a history of violence, substance abuse, mental health problems and/or criminal convictions. The report states that five of the individuals should never have been hired because of their behavior before USPS employment, including threats at their previous job." (To read Deming's paper and others on workplace violence, see www.shrm.org/whitepapers/default.asp?page=health.htm. Scroll to the "Workplace Violence" heading near the bottom of the page.)

I'd appreciate your comments on the subject: how you have handled incidents in your organization, what kinds of policies you have and, especially, how you work to prevent incidents in the first place. You can write me at [email protected].

COPYRIGHT 2001 Society for Human Resource Management
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group