workplace violence
denjen
93 Posts
If there is a fight that breaks out, how should a supervisor react?
I' m clear on after the dust settles. Participants are suspended while an investigation is held and only with cool heads are the consequences dealt out.
My question is how should I coach supervisors to act when a fight is going on? Do they break it up? Stay out of it and call police? Pull one off? Throw water on them?
I' m clear on after the dust settles. Participants are suspended while an investigation is held and only with cool heads are the consequences dealt out.
My question is how should I coach supervisors to act when a fight is going on? Do they break it up? Stay out of it and call police? Pull one off? Throw water on them?
Comments
We have had guys square off, but fortunately nothing severe. The supervisor or coworkers intervened and separated the guys to cool down then we did the investigation.
Having never faced this situation though, my guess would be that you would seek to get personnel on hand who were physically able to safely intervene and seperate the fighting employees.
If your work environment is such that its probable you might deal with this situation, you could consider designating a response team of cool headed individuals who would be authorized to get involved quickly if tempers started to flare.
An ideal team would have a couple of calm, big guys. But I would also have some females on the team. I could envision situations where a female might be more effective in getting two hot heads to seperate.
Ideally, though, I would be regularly communicating that violence in the workplace will not be tolerated and anyone who starts a fight at work will be looking for a job the next day.
I worked in a hotel and I would occasionally have to deal with drunk angry customers. It's not exactly the same as what you are asking about, but the techniques would be useful in any volatile situation. Regardless of the physical size of the supervisor on duty, they will need these skills.
If possible, I would also make sure supervisors have radios or cell phones on them at all times. We used them often at the hotel to call for "back up" or report that a situation may be getting out of hand.
Supervisors should be advised that they should physically intervene only if a) they feel safe doing so, and b) they can maintain a level head and not become part of the fracas.
>some females on the team. I could envision situations where a female might be
>more effective in getting two hot heads to seperate.
I can also envision situations where a woman would be physically strong enough to separate the fighting employees (particularly if Paul was one of the fighters - ha, ha). Not to mention that there may be situations where the fighting employees are women.
You posted the original question. Have you had some previous incidents of violence in the workplace? Is your work environment prone to such issues?
The only case I can remember at the property occurred when two women were suspended and one waited for the other in the parking lot to duke it out. Yes she was terminated of course.
We hire based on past behavior. Some of the employees are just out of high school. Well, emotions can get the best of a person when you've worked a 10 hour shift.
Besides training is best when given before you need the information.
But my guess is that most of these fights involve at least one participant who really doesn't want to fight but is unable to escape the situation without losing face. If that's the case, I think intervention would actually be welcomed.
Does that make sense? Of course, our workplace is very calm and so I am basing my theory from observations at family reunions.
Thank you for all the insight. This is my most used website.