• Workplace violence can be very traumatic for workers involved.gun image by dinostock from Fotolia.com
  
  Workplace violence is a large concern all over the world. Work-related shootings and other violent incidents receive a lot of press coverage, yet this can help raise awareness about how to curtail violence in the workplace. On the flip side, the news coverage also spreads fear through the public consciousness. Employees can be severely traumatized by violence in the workplace and post-traumatic stress is not uncommon after severe incidents. Treating workers after an incident needs to be done carefully to avoid retraumatization.
  
  

Onsite Consultation

• Bringing a therapist in to work with employees onsite, following a violent workplace incident, can be very important in helping them relay their feelings in a protected environment. This can help restore a sense of safety and security on the job again. It is important to have the therapist available at the workplace, for all the employees, because they frequently will not seek out counseling on their own and may try to deal with feelings of trauma privately. A therapist cannot force anyone to talk about his feelings but the therapist can notice trends in what the workers' feelings are and can report issues to management that need to be addressed while maintaining the confidentiality of the individual.
  
  

Lines of Communication

• A therapist is not the only person who needs to be listening to employee concerns. Management needs to set up a way for employees to approach them both personally and confidentially to discuss concerns and also observations in the workplace. If employees are concerned or believe that another incident could take place in the future, they must have a way of expressing that quickly so that management can take appropriate action. It is important that the employee feels her concerns are being taken seriously, which then helps the staff move forward.
  
  

No Tolerance Policy

• Employees need to feel safe at their job. It helps promote good work performance and management needs, to demonstrate that they are taking action to ensure that the earlier occurrences of workplace violence will not happen again. No-tolerance policies need to be established to send the message that any workplace bullying, threatening, or violence will be met promptly with harsh response. If employees believe the earlier incidents are likely to be repeated, the odds of retraumatization are much higher and psychological healing takes longer.