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From: NewsHound@sjmercury.com (NewsHound)
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Date: 95-04-07 00:14:25 EDT

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Workplace Stress Leads to Violence, Analyst Says
By Pat Butler, The State, Columbia, S.C. Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News

Apr. 7--Even as employers turn their attention to the growing problem of
violence in the workplace, the tensions that cause workers to attack one
another are on the rise, a psychologist told a business group Thursday.

Workplaces are becoming more ``toxic,'' said David Stenmark, a professor of
psychology at the University of South Florida and founder of Professional
Psychological Services. His company contracts with businesses to provide
mental health and substance abuse treatment.

Workplaces that foster violence make high demands on employees without giving
them support, are ``downsizing,'' undervalue the work and dignity of their
employees and frequently invade workers' privacy, Stenmark said. All of those
are increasingly common in American workplaces, he said.

Other workplaces at risk for violence have an authoritarian management style,
have a high degree of secrecy and don't have employee assistance programs, he
said.

``Violence is not new, but the occasions of violence are increasing,''
Stenmark said during a seminar on workplace violence at the Greater Columbia
Chamber of Commerce.

Stenmark cited one statistic from an NBC report on workplace violence that
said an average of three workers are murdered on the job every day in the
United States. On Monday, a former employee walked into the office of a
refinery inspection business in Corpus Christi, Texas, and shot five people
to death before killing himself.

South Carolina has had no workplace homicides since November 1993, when two
convenience store clerks were killed in two days, according to the state
Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

But there have been enough prominent cases of workplace violence that
employers are looking for ways to keep it from happening. George Aun, safety
and environmental manager for Standard Products Co. in Winnsboro, said he
attended Thursday's session to find ways to make his company's workplaces
safer and to train workers about the problem.

``We haven't really focused on it, but we need to,'' he said. Downsizing
companies are ``placing difficult demands on us, and we're placing difficult
demands on our employees. Workplace pressure is increasing.''

Stenmark said there are two types of workplace violence. The first is the
``outside threat,'' violence committed during robberies and other crimes. The
second is the ``inside threat,'' which includes terrorism and hate crimes,
violence against family members or the object of a worker's affection and
violence against supervisors.

The latter is the fastest growing type of workplace violence, and the most
frequent victims are human resource managers, Stenmark said.

``When people's lives are changed, they personalize the source of that
change,'' he said. ``They've got to find a personal target, and that target
is frequently the human resource manager.''

One of the most important tactics to prevent workplace violence is to form a
``threat management team,'' made up of human resources professionals, a
psychologist or employee assistance program person, a security person, an
attorney and a workplace violence consultant, Stenmark said.

Other ways to prevent workplace violence: - Establish company policies on
violence, sexual harassment, fair treatment of employees and a drug-free
workplace.

- Set up an employee assistance program. - Conduct a survey of the work
climate. - Train supervisors to recognize and deal with potential problems. -
Give workers permission to report threats and other problems. - Make sure you
have proper procedures for firings and layoffs. END!A9?CS-WORK-VIOLENCE

AP-NY-04-06-95 2050EDT


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