Hamilton, ON (July 5, 2010) – Violence is a growing concern in the workplace, and while many may think of violence as only physical assault, it is a much broader problem. To help people recognize and report the signs, the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) has developed posters depicting various types of behaviours that are considered workplace violence.
“Workplace violence is any act in which a person is abused, threatened, intimidated or assaulted in his or her employment,” says Jessie Callaghan, senior technical specialist at CCOHS, and expert in the areas of workplace violence and bullying. “It’s not limited to incidents that occur within a traditional workplace. Work-related violence can occur at off-site business functions, at work social events, in clients' homes or away from work but resulting from work, such as a threatening telephone call to your home from a client.”
Workplace bullying is a form of workplace violence that involves repeated incidents or a pattern of behaviour that intimidates, offends, degrades or humiliates a person or group, or is an assertion of power through aggression. Each of these acts is considered a serious workplace problem and can cause undue stress, anxiety and low morale, ultimately affecting the individual, the employer and productivity as a whole for the organization.
For more information on violence and bullying and to download the free PDF posters, please visit the CCOHS website at www.ccohs.ca.