Introduction
In spite of the literal connotation that seems to occurrences that take place at home or domestically, domestic violence does not always remain at home. Alternatively, domestic violence follows its subjects to work, and this often results in disastrous consequences. Homicide is ranked second among the leading causes of death of women at the workplace and that around 15% of these deaths are attributable to current and former lovers (Dougan and Wells, 2007). Every day, many employees are reporting incidences of workplace violence and most of these incidences are related to domestic violence. Dometic violence not only poses a threat to the victim but also to the wellbeing and safety of clients, coworkers, customers and even the general public and therefore, the management must come up with effective strategies to mitigate such cases the moment that they arise at the workplace.
The actual act of domestic violence does not take place at the workplace, for, example a woman is not battered by a spouse at her actual workplace. On the hand, however, its effects are the ones that are clearly felt at the workplace (Perrone, 1999). These effects often exhibit themselves in the form of increased absenteeism, decreased productivity and well as rising levels of organizational health care costs and insurance (Dougan and Wells, 2007).
The effect on productivity is particularly very pronounced and aggregates to losses worth millions of dollars annually. When a worker is a victim of domestic violence at home, he or she may not be able to exhibit the expected productivity levels (Swanberg & Logan, 2005). For example, the employee may be physically injured, and when it comes to performing physical duties, they may not be at the best position to perform these duties (Perrone, 1999). If, for example, the job involves lifting heavy loads or operating large machineries, the employee may be unable to perform these actions. In addition, the employee may even be prone to dangerous accidents because they are not at their best level. The effect on productivity may not just be felt in physical roles. Because of the stress associated with the domestic violence, the employee may be constantly distracted even if he or she operates from a desk. Distraction may cause the employee to input wrong data and values, and this may have magnanimous effects on the company (Widiss, 2007). For example, a wrong input in the company’s accounting records may lead to the loss of millions of dollars.
Absenteeism is also another effect of domestic violence that affects productivity. Research shows that domestic violence is responsible for a significant fraction of absenteeism from workplaces across all industries (Perrone, 1999). Absenteeism for instance results when an employee is battered the previous night by the spouse and is unable to make it to the workplace the next day (Swanberg & Logan, 2005). Since the daily organizational targets are dependent on every employee’s contribution, an absent employee means that the overall target is not met (Widiss, 2007). The overall effect is decreased levels of productivity in the organization.
The observed humongous effects of domestic violence at the workplace warrants the attention of managers’ employers, job supervisors and even the security staff at the work place (Dougan and Wells, 2007). It is particularly the management’s duty to identify such cases and come up with strategies to mitigate the problems. Employees who are victims of domestic violence (many of who are women) need to be helped in any way possible. An effective work place response that including safety plans is crucial for every single individual in the organization (Dougan and Wells, 2007). The safety plan should be based on a couple of things with one of them being the information provided by the victim and the other being the victim’s inclination. The capacity of the workplace is another factor that should also be put into consideration.
While the manager or the employer may only be initially only motivated by humanitarian concerns to assist an employee who shows signs of being a victim of domestic violence, the confounding business costs accompanied by increase legal liability exposure that confront employees make the addressing of the issue extend beyond the humanitarian framework (Felblinger & Gates, 2008).
However, employers and manager must adopt a proactive approach when it comes to addressing this issue (Dougan and Wells, 2007). The primary goal of such an endeavor should be create a safer workplace environment by availing support to all the employees who are victims of domestic violence and at the same time providing guidelines to every employee in the organization as well as managers to respond suitably whenever such issues arise at the work place (Dougan and Wells, 2007).
The first step towards dealing with domestic violence and preventing its effects from fully spilling over to the job site is to enact a cultural shift whereby employees feel free and comfortable to come out and admit that they are experiencing domestic violence related issues. It is only after admittance on the employee’s part that mitigating strategies can then be taken (Brown & Stephens, 2006).
As mentioned, earlier, the organization management or leadership must exhibit commitment to deal with the situation. In fact, the key to as successful domestic violence prevention program, is uttermost commitment from the topmost leadership of the organization. Employees may exhibit sympathy towards one of their own who is a victim of domestic violence but in reality, they may not be able to act. In addition, once the management shows great commitment towards the issue, even the employees will start taking the issue more seriously.
Because domestic violence is a very sensitive issue, it should not be classed together with other types of workplace violence. The managers should establish a distinctive policy that deals exclusively with workplace violence (Robertson, 1998).
The major focus of policy on domestic violence should be to provide information as well as well as appropriate referral to domestic violence victims. The policy should for instance address the issues related to security, provision of time offs as well as ways of dealing with performance related matters (Fitzgerald et al., 1998). It is also vital to recall that policies should not be designed in a manner that makes the manager, or the employer come across as a counselor or an expert in such matters (Gaines, 2000). Rather, policies should be designed only to mitigate domestic violence impact on the work place and provide the victims with appropriate community resources that attend to those issues.
Training is the next step that is vital in dealing with domestic violence issues. Training should be conducted on every single stakeholder of the organization including the managers as well as employees (Dillon, 2013). They should be trained so that they can fully understand what the concept of domestic violence is and the legal framework that governs the organization policy on domestic violence (Dillon, 2013). The training should involve a clear outline on the appropriate actions that should be taken and the referrals that are the manager’s and fellow employee’s disposal (Robertson, 1998).
There are particularly several advisable strategies that a manager can take to deal with employees who seem to be in imminent danger due to domestic violence.
First, managers must communicate their concerns for the safety of the employee. The manager must then advise the employee on some organizations that can help in dealing with the problem. For example, the manager may recommend the employee to seek assistance from the Employee Assistance Program (Robertson, 1998). Alternatively the manager can recommend other available resources that the employee can utilize.
However, when it comes to domestic matters, there is always the threat of overstepping boundaries. Managers should take care not become over involved because such an action may potentially make a situation to become even more dangerous that it currently is. For example, managers should take caution not to over involve themselves in providing counselling services for the employee who has been a victim or even giving them favors such as money, giving them one’s home as shelter or even conducting random checks at the home of the employee (Dougan and Wells, 2007).
The workplace is not just characterized by victims of domestic violence. The workplace may be characterized by individuals who perpetrate acts of domestic violence themselves. In regards to this, the company should also make a tough stand on these issues including tough disciplinary measures and even dismissals of workers who are accused of domestic violence (Robertson, 1998). A contemporary example of an organization taking a tough stand on domestic violence would the National Football League (NFL) that recently banned, Ray Rice, a player who was accused of being domestically violent and battering his wife.
Other policies that may come in handy in helping to reduce incidences of domestic violence may for instance, involve banning the use of companies telecommunication channels such as fax machines , emails and phones for instance to harass employee’s partners (Johnson & Gardner,1999). Employees found sung these tools to harass partners should be subjected to intensive disciplinary measures and if they continue with such behavior, they should be dismissed from the workplace to serve as examples to others who may have the same tendency.
Conclusion
Domestic violence is an issue whose effects spillover to the workplace. These effects often exhibit themselves in terms of increased absenteeism, decreased productivity and well as rising levels of organizational health care costs and insurance. The primary effect of domestic violence at the workplace is however decreased productivity. It has also been shown that incidences of domestic violence have been increasing at the workplace, and this has necessitated the management to act immediately and appropriately. It has been shown that the observed effects of domestic violence at the workplace warrants the attention of managers’ employers, job supervisors and even the security staff. It is particularly the management’s duty to identify such cases and come up with strategies to mitigate the problems. The paper has shown that when the managements shows a deep commitment in addressing the issue of domestic violence, the employees are also likely to take the issue the seriousness that it deserves. Adequate domestic violence policies should be established, and this should be accompanied by training all related stakeholders including managers and employees. However, caution should be taken not to go beyond the appropriate boundaries because this may lead to even more disastrous consequences.
References
Brown, B. A., & Stephens, W. (2006, January). Domestic Violence in the Workplace. In ASSE Professional Development Conference and Exposition. American Society of Safety Engineers.
Dillon, E. (2013, November). Domestic violence and the workplace. In 141st APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 2-November 6, 2013). APHA.
Dougan, S., & Wells, K. (2007). Domestic Violence: Workplace Policies and Management Strategies. Commission on domestic violence, 7, 1-8.
Felblinger, D. M., & Gates, D. (2008). Domestic violence screening and treatment in the workplace. AAOHN journal: official journal of the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses, 56(4), 143-150.
Fitzgerald, S., Dienemann, J., & Cadorette, M. F. (1998). Domestic violence in the workplace. Plastic surgical nursing, 18(4), 219-228.
Gaines, J. M. (2000). Employer Liability for Domestic Violence in the Workplace: Are Employers Walking a Tightrope without a Safety Net. Tex. Tech L. Rev., 31, 139.
Johnson, P. R., & Gardner, S. (1999). Domestic violence and the workplace: Developing a company response. Journal of Management Development, 18(7), 590-597.
Perrone, S. (1999). Violence in the Workplace. Canberra,, Australia: Australian Institute of Criminology.
Robertson, J. C. (1998). Addressing Domestic Violence in the Workplace: An Employer's Responsibility. Law & Ineq., 16, 633.
Swanberg, J. E., & Logan, T. K. (2005). Domestic violence and employment: a qualitative study. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 10(1), 3.
Widiss, D. A. (2007). Domestic violence and the workplace: The explosion of state legislation and the need for a comprehensive strategy. Fla. St. UL Rev., 35, 669.
