`Jill” and “Cathy,” both in their late 20s, were taking a break, chatting and drinking coffee in their company’s kitchen area. Suddenly, after what seemed to Jill to be nothing more than a minor disagreement, Cathy flung her scalding coffee in Jill’s face.
She screamed and stood there in shock while Cathy calmly returned to her desk as if she had done nothing wrong.
Hard to believe? Well, I witnessed the incident at the Chicago advertising agency where I used to work. Cathy was immediately fired; later it was learned that she had a history of emotional problems, none of which came out in the interviewing or reference-checking process.
Violence in the workplace is on the rise, and understandably so. With the increased stress in everyday life, the statistics have nowhere to go but up. Many of the letters I receive involve personality clashes and people’s inability to communicate.
The Society for Human Resource Management in Alexandria, Va., surveyed more than 1,000 human resource professionals on violence in their workplaces. Results showed that 62 percent of the violence was caused by personality conflicts, 27 percent by work-related stress, another 27 percent by family or marital problems, 25 percent by emotional or mental illnesses, 16 percent by firings and 16 percent by drug and alcohol abuse.
Nearly half of the more than 1,000 HR professionals said that one or more violent incidents had occurred in their workplaces since Jan. 1, 1994. Here’s who it affects: %%
Employee to employee 57 percent
Former employee to employee 1 percent
Employee to supervisor 17 percent
Former employee to supervisor 2 percent
Supervisor to employee 2 percent
Customer to employee 6 percent
Employee to customer 1 percent
Girl/boyfriend to employee 4 percent
Spouse to employee 3 percent
Ex-spouse to employee 2 percent
Relative to employee less than 1 percent
Other 3 percent
%% And though only 1 percent of the violence involved rape, sexual assault, shooting and stabbing, nearly 40 percent reported at least one occurrence of threats, 22 percent reported incidents involving pushing and shoving and 13 percent reported fist fights.
Keep these numbers in mind. The next time a workplace problem occurs, take it seriously. Don’t let it become a statistic.
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Problems on the job? Write to Lindsey Novak, At Work, Financial Department, 4th Floor, Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago 60611, or, via e-mail: AtWorkbyLN@aol.com. No phone calls, please. Answers will be supplied only through the newspaper.
