Domestic violence isn't just a private problem that affects individual victims in their homes. Violence can enter the workplace whenever and wherever a victim or her batterer holds a job. The effects, both direct and indirect, are major ones.

• Homicide is the number one cause of on-the-job fatalities for women workers. In 1996, a US Department of Labor study showed that in 17% of these homicides, the alleged assailants were current or former husbands or boyfriends.¹ Each year, current or former husbands and boyfriends commit more than 13,000 non-fatal acts of aggression or harassment against women on the job.² The Justice Department has named the workplace the most dangerous place for women to be.³
  
  
• A 1996 National Safe Workplace Institute survey of 248 corporate security and safety directors found that 94% of the security professionals rated domestic violence as a "high" security problem for businesses. More than 90% of the respondants was personally aware of at least three separate cases of men stalking women on the job. But most said their companies had no specific policies in place to encourage employees to report domestic violence or to protect such employees.
  
  
• Domestic abuse directly affects a company's productivity, morale, and profits. Surveys of domestic violence victims have found that the majority of them report being chronically late to work or absent due to abuse, having difficulty performing their jobs due to injury, stress, and trauma, or being reprimanded by supervisors for problems associated with the abuse. 30% reported losing their jobs.⁴ Domestic violence victims may require more medical care. Companies must go through the expense and set-back of hiring and training replacements if the victim is fired or forced to quit her job by her abuser.
  
  
• Other employees are put at substantial risk when a potentially homicidal batterer assaults a victim in the workplace. Receptionists, security guards, or anyone nearby may be killed or injured if a batterer enters a workplace with a gun and starts shooting.
  
  
• Employees may suffer anxiety, stress and trauma from witnessing constant harassment of a co-worker at the workplace. They may also be fearful of working with a batterer in their midst, if the batterer is the employee. The effects of this stress may lead to reduced productivity, absenteeism, and higher employee turnover.
  
  
• Should a violent incident occur in the workplace, the employer could be liable for compensation or damages under Worker's Compensation or a civil tort action for negligence. The Occupational Safety and Health Association states that employees have a "general duty" to maintain a safe working environment. According to OSHA: "Workplace violence is any physical assault, threatening behavior or verbal abuse occurring in a work setting. It includes but is not limited to beatings, stabbings, suicides, shootings, rapes, near suicides, psychological traumas such as threats, obscene phone calls, an intimidating presence, and harassment of any nature such as being followed, sworn at or shouted at." Juries have awarded damages in the millions of dollars to families of workplace violence victims.

Employers who want to respond proactively to the possibility of domestic violence problems affecting their employees can take several positive courses of action.

• Educate yourself and your employees about domestic violence. Many domestic violence agencies will come to your company to offer trainings and workshops. There are also many books and videos available.
  
  
• Learn how to identify employees who may be domestic violence victims, and how to intervene with them safely. The following may offer clues that an employee is a victim of domestic violence:
  • Obvious injuries such as bruises, black eyes, broken bones, or hearing loss, especially if injuries are repeated or employee is evasive about how they happened
  • Absenteeism, tardiness
  • Difficulty in concentrating, increased errors in work, slower completion of tasks
  • Anxiety, fearfulness
  • Requests for special arrangements: flexible hours, change in hours, permission to leave early, request to transfer to other location or department
  • Emotional distress, tearfulness, depression, suicidal thoughts; emotional "numbness" or inexpressiveness
  • Minimization and denial if questioned about obvious problems
  • Employee's partner calls her constantly, asks questions about her whereabouts, seems to be "checking up on her"
  
  
• Develop a strong policy for assisting an employee who reports that she is dealing with domestic violence at home, or who has taken out a restraining order. This policy will help protect the victim, her coworkers and the company itself. It will include measures for informing selected employees of the problem, heightening security, offering the victim protection (escorts to her car, codes to summon security), and documenting all steps taken and whether the victim declined or accepted them.
  
  
• Keep an updated list of domestic violence resources available to offer employees who may not be know where to go for help.

  NOTES:

  ¹ "Fatal Workplace Injuries in 1994: A Collection of Data and Analysis," Report 908, Bureau of Labor Satistics, U.S. Department of Labor, July 1996.
  ² Domestic Violence Slowly Finding its Way into American Workplace, Lubbock Avalanche Journal, August 12, 1997.
  ³ The Startling Statistics, Personnel Journal, April 1995.
  ⁴ "Domestic Violence: An Occupational Impact Study," Domestic Violence Intervention Services, Inc., Tulsa, OK, July 27, 1992.