Workplace violence – can you feel safe anywhere?

There are various kinds of workplace violence that takes place in the corporate world today. Basically they can be divided into two kinds – internal and external. Internal workplace violence results when a superior or a physically stronger person abuses you in some way. This could be more than just physical violence and may include aspects like threatening, verbal abuse, sexual innuendoes and the like. External violence refers to violence that people are exposed to when they work in high risk jobs.

Let’s take each kind of violence and look at what you can do as an individual to ensure self defense. While reporting violence at work by co-workers may seem fraught with issues, sitting and taking all that bullying that is meted out to you is also cowardice. You should try and find out more about the company’s policy against such acts and then move towards creating evidence that proves your point. Make a journal of the various acts that have threatened or actually physically harmed you. Make sure that you seek medical help when hurt so that you can create evidence. Report the incidents to your manager and follow through with the complaint. Scary as it might seem, taking things in your own hands and actually doing something about this is the only self defense act that you can do in such cases. Fear of being stamped as an outcast need to be shunned aside.

External violence and assaults are a different scenario altogether and need to be handled differently. People who come in contact with strangers, work in a mobile kind of setting, engage in activities that involve unstable people, work alone outside of the house or work in community based settings are at a higher risk of facing external violence. Professions like police officers, teachers, social workers, paramedics, security personnel, bartenders and waitresses, therefore need to ensure that they are trained on a certain number of self defense tactics to ensure safety.

In fact there are many organizations like hospitals and real estate companies that realize that their employees run the extra risk by working in such environments. These companies ensure that each individual that is inducted into the company goes through thorough self defense training. Such companies have gone a step further and realized that self defense training can actually add to various other aspects of the growth of their employees. Individuals who are trained in self defense are more confident, better leaders and can handle work stress in a far more mature manner than others. Employees who have practiced self defense are able to solve problems in a more creative manner because self defense teaches the art of thinking on the feet when attack situations arise. With the many benefits that self defense training has, many corporate companies are taking their recruits through self defense videos prior to making them practice some of the techniques.

In other companies where such self defense training is not a must, each employee is armed with a self defense non-lethal weapon. This is mainly done to ensure the safety of the employee when they go into high risk areas on account of work. Pepper sprays and stun guns and tasers work well for this purpose. With a swish of a hand, anyone can restrain the attacker for a few minutes with a pepper spray ensuring escape. Stun guns are also extremely effective in making sure that the high voltage shock keeps the assailant stunned for a while.

Most companies are waking up to the self defense training responsibility that they have towards their employees and this measure is surely preventing a fair number of assaults that would otherwise take place.

Steve Thibeault is the owner of TBO-TECH, a company that understands your self protection needs and offers products that are practical and effective. Other than a wide range of pepper sprays, stun guns and batons, the company also provides martial arts weapons, personal alarms, hidden safes, spy gear and sporting products like slingshots and blowguns. For more information on self defense items, log on to TBO-TECH.