Avoiding Physical Harm When Workplace Violence Prevention Fails

Your best efforts to prevent a workplace violence attack can fail. What then? How do your employees avoid being physically harmed once an attack starts? 

As part of its workplace violence prevention law, California requires employers to train your employees, each year, in strategies to avoid physical harm from workplace violence. 

In doing so, California recognizes that despite your best efforts to prevent it, workplace violence can still happen to your employees. As a result, employers must provide employees with the skills, and tools, needed to avoid being physically harmed when an attack occurs. 

And employers must evaluate their employees’ specific workplace violence safety hazards from all 4 source types of workplace violence: community, invitee, co-worker, and employee personal connections, when determining the strategies to train their employees in.

Every year, over 100,000 employees are treated at hospital emergency rooms for injuries sustained from a non-fatal workplace violence assault. 

That’s a lot of people injured badly enough from a workplace violence attack to require emergency medical care. 

And that’s exactly what California is trying to prevent with this requirement. 

In a perfect world, we all want employees to use strategies to avoid physical harm that don’t require physically engaging with an attacker, such as de-escalation and conflict resolution. But, we don’t live in a perfect world. 

In the real world, violence happens. And it doesn’t follow a text book progression. Attacks can be launched without warning. No verbal threats. Just a haymaker punch. 

And once an attack starts, acting in self-defense, and in the defense of others, may be your employees only chance to avoid physical harm. 

Here’s 5 reasons why employers should train employees in self-defense as part of California’s requirement to train employees in strategies to avoid physical harm.

Training your employees in strategies to avoid physical harm from workplace violence is the most important; yet, least understood requirement in California’s workplace violence prevention law. My free, on-demand, training, based upon my 30 years of investigating violence in the workplace and in the community takes the mystery out of training your employees in strategies to avoid physical harm. Doing so helps keep your employees safer while complying with California’s requirements. Watch this training when it’s convenient for you. 

The Intentionality of Violence

A member of the community enters your workplace armed with a hammer. Maybe the person has significant mental health issues. Maybe he’s angry at you for the work your organization does.

Regardless of the reason. He’s intent upon inflicting physical harm on your employees or even on you.  

That’s exactly what just happened to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.

The attacker did not enter the governor’s mansion to scare or intimidate the governor, nor was he there just to express himself. His intent was to physically harm Shapiro. 

He was armed with an impact weapon, one that’s also an ordinary household item. A hammer is super easy to use as a weapon, and incredibly effective at causing physical harm and death. 

Ok. Your employees are not high profile elected officials. But, they can easily be targeted for violence by a grievance driven resident of the community. Or a client, customer, or patient, or someone connected to them who feels slighted. It can even be from someone in your employee’s private life from outside of work. 

We often think of intent to commit violence as days and days of planning. But intent to commit violence doesn’t always happen that way.

In fact, under the law, intent can be formed in just a matter of seconds before an attack. 

Regardless of which way it happens, most violence is committed with the intent to harm. 

When someone intends to harm you, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to talk them out of attacking you. In fact, your employees may not even have the time to try to de-escalate. The attack happens regardless. 

And when an attack occurs, the only remaining strategy for your employee to avoid physical harm is to engage in self-defense. 

Attacks Happen Super Fast 

You know how they describe performance cars by how fast they go from 0-60 MPH. 

Physical attacks, like a high performance auto, can go from 0-60 in the blink of an eye. 

From start to finish, the average physical attack is over and done in 7 seconds or less. 

1…2…3…4…5…6…7.

By the time you get to 7, your employee is already on the ground, and incapacitated. 

That’s pretty darn quick.

If your employees have some basic self-defense training, even something as simple as knowing how to stand in the “safe stance” when facing a potential attacker, they can slow that process down. 

And, any time your employees can slow down an attack, the greater the chance they have to avoid physical harm from it.

Most attacks are launched with a right hand punch. Self-defense training helps your employee prevent that first strike from harming them and putting them on the ground. 

Engaging in self-defense, forces the attacker to have to recalibrate his attack when his initial strike didn’t achieve his objective of putting your employee on the ground. And when done right, self-defense puts the attacker onto the defensive himself. 

Understand that being on the ground is not where your employee should be. And if that happens getting back up quickly is critical to avoiding physical harm. Being on the ground restricts your ability to move. As if it were a second attacker. Making it easier for an attacker to get on top of you, to continue striking, commit sexual assault, or even kill you.

Because of the speed of an attack, self-defense can create opportunity for your employee. Either to exit the situation, or to shut down the attack completely through further actions.

Self-defense Sounds Major. But it’s Simply Another Tool in the Workplace Violence Prevention Toolbox

There are different strategies to avoid physical harm from workplace violence. And the approaches used duirng any given situation is situationally dependent. 

Every potentially violent situation is different. And that’s because violence does not follow a set trajectory. It does not go from point a…to point b…to point c.

So the most effective strategy to help your employees avoid physical harm depends entirely on the given situation.

That’s why training in multiple strategies to avoid physical harm isn’t just a requirement under the law, it’s essential to avoiding physical harm.

If your employee can spot a safety risk early enough to avoid it entirely. Not having to engage is a great way to avoid physical harm. Situational awareness is the single most important tool in your toolbox when it comes to being able to avoid the risk for physical harm outright. 

But, sometimes, situational awareness only gives your employees enough time to gird for an attack; rather, than to avoid it completely. 

It’s just too late to safely exit before engaging. But, the early recognition of a safety threat allows your employee to defend against an attack, and avoid physical harm from it. 

The goal in providing self-defense training is to give your employee the ability to create the opportunity to exit safely. 

So self-defense training achieve to goals: avoiding being seriously harmed. And creating an opening to exit as soon as possible.

Acting in Self-defense and Defense of Others is Lawful in California 

Some employers may worry that training employees in self-defense can lead to employees abusing the training. Or that by acting in self-defense your employee can run afoul of the law. 

But, California’s new workplace violence law specifically exempts acting in self-defense or in defense of others from the definition of acts that comprise workplace violence.

Under California law, a person is legally allowed to act in self-defense, or in defense of others, if there is a “reasonable belief” that you are in imminent danger of an attack. You don’t have to wait until you are actually attacked in order to engage in self-defense, or in defense of others, as long as a “reasonable” person would look at the situation and believe that if they were experiencing the same situation, that their safety is at risk.

Self-defense is a lawful and legitimate way to avoid physical harm. And California’s specific menmtion that self-defense and defense of others is exempt from being considered workplace violence is a clear statement in support of acting in self-defense when it comes down to avoiding physical harm.

Self-defense Training Enhances Workplace Culture

Employers who train employees in self-defense actually boost workplace culture.  

How many employees actually feel like their employer has their back? Not many.  

In fact, it’s part of what has led to the “great detachment”. It’s pretty simple.

Would you rather work for an employer who cares enough about your safety or one who doesn’t?

The answer to that question is obvious. And from my many years of providing workplace violence prevention training including training in self-defense to organizations, the answer is a resounding yes.

It builds loyalty, improves morale, and bonding. Employees who work for employers who provide self-defense training feel that their employers have their back.  

And there is no better way to ensure that employees represent your brand in the best light, than for them to feel like you care about their safety and well being.

Interested in learning more about strategies to avoid physical harm and whether training your employees in self-defense is a good match for your organization. Schedule a free consultation.