What Could You, Would You, Should You Do To Survive A Catastrophic Workplace Violence Situation?

There you are, minding your own business - doing your work, and then all you hear is the sound of screaming, crashing, and gunfire! At least you think it's gun fire. After all, you've only ever heard it in the movies before this very moment.

Question: What could you, should you, would you do, if this were happening to you right now?

Thank God it's not, right? I mean, after all, this is just a hypothetical question.

Right?

But, what if it wasn't?

What if, out of the blue... you know... when you least expect it...

...you find yourself inside hell and need to survive?

What then?

Here's another question: Can YOU, right now... do ANYTHING at all?


Do you have a plan of action?

A plan that you can follow as soon as something happens? Or, will you have to try to figure things out through all of the noise, screaming, and maybe even the sight of some of your friends falling dead and wounded around you?

Do you have the skills necessary for evading your attackers, avoiding or otherwise protecting yourself from incoming gunfire, a flailing knife blade, club or other weapon? Or, will you shrink and cower in fear, hoping that your pleas for mercy will be heeded by a crazy lunatic who only plans to kill himself when he's finished with everyone else?

I know how gruesome this sounds but, this is my job. My job is to be very clear about - to be willing to see, understand, and respond to the very things that most people don't want to even think about.

If you're like most managers and employees in the business world, your company has a workplace violence plan that is a shell - a "standardized" policy - which includes a statement of "zero-tolerance," a "banned-weapons" list, and a set of reporting procedures and punitive policies. Your company might even have gone so far as to have included training sessions on topics like interpersonal-communications, reporting abusive, harassing, or threatening actions, etc. Unfortunately, you might even work for a company who doesn't even have that much.

My job, and YOURS, is to make sure that you can survive when that policy fails. When, in the reality of the moment, your company's workplace violence policy is seen for what it really is:

A lot of ink on a stack of paper.

But, unless you've taken matters into your own hands already. Unless you're a black belt martial artist, former police or military professional, or been training in self-defense for a while, you're still not prepared to deal with the operative word in workplace violence. And that word is:

"VIOLENCE!"

The very random nature of violence means that you never know WHEN, HOW, or WHY violence will strike. Even highly paid, highly trained experts can't tell you that. And, if an assailant really wants to unleash hell where you happen to be, no amount of security, deterrence, or written policy is going to stop the act from occurring.

And, while the prevention and deterrence training taught by 98% of the workplace violence consultants out there is necessary and a good starting point. The only think that will allow you to actually survive a catastrophic workplace violence assault on your facility - on YOU... is a plan and the necessary training in the skills that work.

Once you have that training, you'll know what to say when someone asks you, "what would you, should you, or could you do?"

I know that the first thing to get cut during these stressful times is your company's training budget. I also know that the first thing to go up during these scary times is the level of anger, stress, and hostility. As we've seen just in the past few months, the amount of violence, and the number of catastrophic workplace violence attacks can't be ignored. They've also shown that no business, no facility, and no job is immune - regardless of where you are in the world.

If you'd like more information about getting the training you need to surviving an explosive incident in your business, call our international office in the US at (570) 988-2228.

Also, don't forget to download your free report, "Attack-Proof Your Facility", which is available on the main website at www.wcinternational.com

Workplace Violence in the Medical Sector - A Unique Perspective

While the concept of violence in the workplace is not new by any means, any more than workplace violence is an "American-thing," the medical sector is waking up to the reality that it is in a, so-called, league of its own.

For years, the medical sector, at least that part of it that took action, has been treating the issue of workplace violence as though hospitals, clinics, and doctor's offices were no different than factories. Those who did take measures to prevent violence in the workplace - who did create workplace violence plans, polices, and procedures for handling this important issue - did so as though they were "just like everybody else."

And, they have come to find out...

...it just wasn't so.


The Reality of Workplace Violence In The Health Sector

The truth when it comes to WPV in the healthcare field is that...

• The health care sector has one of the lowest - if not THE lowest rate of employee-initiated incidents in the corporate world. Good for them. But...
  
  
• The health care sector has THE HIGHEST number of incidents of violence perpetrated against health workers on the job!

We'll talk about why this is true in another post. But what's important now is the fact that the health care community made a serious error in judgment. They operated under the premis, and hired workplace violence consultants to assist them based on the premis, that they had the same problem that every other company did, and they could use the same measures.

In fact, when it comes to violence in the workplace, the health sector is in such a unique position that the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation - the FBI - has created a seperate listing for health care professionals in the world of workplace violence.

Why?

A few reasons.

1. The typical attack on a health care worker is perpetrated by an assailant who does not fit the profile established using standard workplace violence data and statistics.
   
   
2. The typical assailant in an attack on a medical professional lashes out for very different reasons than in the rest of the corporate world. And...
   
   
3. Health care workers are in a very unique position when it comes to dealing with an attack, in that he or she must defend themselves while simultaneously providing aid to their assailant!

Its Time Has Come

In the past year or so, the medical community has been waking up to the realities of workplace violence as it relates to them. They are re-examining their beliefs, policies, and procedures and seeing the lack of real protection.

In fact, many facilities, just like many standard companies in the corporate world at-large, are realizing that the workplace violence plans, policies, and procedures they have in place...

...just might be creating the very same liability issues they were meant to handle in the first place!

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Jeffrey Miller is the founder and CEO of Warrior Concepts International, Inc., a self-protection training company focusing on workplace violence defensive tactics training and policy development. Unlike most consultants in the field, Mr. Miller focuses on teaching his clients what to do when their workplace violence plan fails and they find themselves face-to-face with an assailant who threatens the welfare of their employees, management, and the very life of their company. He may be reached (in the US and Canada) at (570) 988-2228, or through his web site at www.wcinternational.com.

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Just A Quick Note...

I've been invited to be a presenter at the Conference on Workplace Violence in the Health Sector, being held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in October 2008. My presentation will focus on the theme behind this blog... the missing link - the missing element in most workplace violence plans. That missing link is defensive tactics training for staff and employees in health care facilities.

I'll be talking more about this in an upcoming issue so be sure to subscribe to this blog, or at the very least, bookmark this site so you can check back often.

Until next time.

Peace, Happiness, and Safety,


Jeffrey M. Miller
Workplace Violence Defensive Tactics Consultant

Warrior Concepts International
www.wcinternational.com

For informational on general self-defense issues, women's self-defense, child-safety, and more, please visit my other site at www.warrior-concepts-online.com.

Copyright (C) 2008 by Jeffrey M. Miller and Warrior Concepts International.
All Rights Reserved

This work is protected under the copyright laws of the United States and other Countries. It may be freely usedas long as it is copied and presented as-is, with no changes and all links remain active with absolutely no "no-follow" coding of any kind be used that would prevent readers from accessing the web sites and destinations pointed to in the text.