Workplace Aggression and or Toxic Environments

Violence can occur in any workplace and among any type of worker ; but the risk for fatal violence is grater  in sales ,protective services and in transportation, while the risk of non fatal violence resulting in days away from work is greatest for healthcare and social assistance (CDC.gov) . According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics 409 workers in private industry and government were workplace homocide victims in he year 2014. 83% were males and 49% were females  32% worked in retail establishments. Total fatal injuries in 2014 were estimated to be 4,821 with 183 of these in the mining industry ,899 in construction , 349 in manufacturing , 1,246 in transportation and utilities , 766 in warehouses and 177 in financial institutions ; as well as 425 in professional and business services . Among some of the behaviors identified as precursors to violence in the workplace are (1) ambivalence (2) bullying and (3) stress and high workplace demands (NIOSH,2017) . Occupational aggression is the act or the threat of violence which may range from verbal to physical assaults directed towards personnel at work or on duty. One of the leading misconceptions about work place aggression is that the personnel that chose to leave this type of environment is the toxic carrier when in fact the toxic carrier rarely does so , this leads to high rates of turn over ; ineffective returns in training expenditures and loss of good personnel . Some of the terminology involved in identifying worker conduct are for example the steamroller, the sniper and or the compliant server who says yes to everything asked of him or her  while the steamroller is a worker who is extreamly aggressive and demanding and uses the threat of violence or other means to obtain what he or she desires . Another consequence related to toxic work environments are health related ; these often end up or can end in punitive damages ,PTSD , nevus breakdowns or depression . Assessments related to quality of service often serve to identify a toxic work environment , this is often very evident when the leader of the work team is the toxic carrier ; this has financial and long lasting implications ; such as for instance in temporary workers who withhold passwords bestowed to him or her  as part of his work duties and uses these to gain access and cause damage to work infrastructure activities . Another form of more subtle aggression are the passive aggressive individual who uses subtleties to exclude another worker from for instance meetings, emails ,  and other work activities that are carried out in a team fashion , always by accident of course. The best way to address these very important issues in public health are by being rigorous in productivity and performance evaluations , keeping close relationships with the workforce team and quickly addressing issues as they arise . An important factor when addressing these issues are that this type of aggression which begins in the work place can flow outside of the work place as well ; for this reason it is important to quickly identify work related problems and address these in a timely fashion .

References
CDC(2017) occupational Agression . The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health NIOSH Retrieved from htp://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/volence/factsheets.html