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OSHA says no to office place violence

OSHA i.e. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is a department under the Department of Labor, US. OSHA is primarily concerned with combating, identifying, reducing and finally eliminating, even if not entirely, work place hazards. Homicide is known to be the fourth highest workplace hazard in the United States of America and it is essential that each and every individual’s rights are safeguarded against such inhuman activities.

What is workplace violence?
Workplace violence refers to any act that may be socially, morally wrong and can be forced upon someone with an intention to hurt a fellow being. Some of the common activities cited as workplace violence are:
• Use of abusive language
• Physical assault
• Throwing things at people
• Stalking people outside office hours
• Threatening phone calls
• Threats
• Stress
It is interesting to note that workplace violence is not limited to acts committed at the workplace alone it also refers to misconduct by colleagues even outside the workplace premises.
Although there are no hard and fast rules regarding workplace violence the person is subject to prosecution and penalty applicable as per the nature of the act. One must remember that the Human Resources Department at your office is the first line of defense for workplace violence and any nagging doubt for a potential hazard should be mentioned to the Human Resource Development Department.

Try not to confront a conflict on your own and make sure that you care for your safety rather than being angry and going with the flow. Reacting to violence will never help; in fact it may just backfire and cause the culprit to react with more violence than before. It is best to avoid workplace violence and report and deal with official problems and conflicts with utmost professionalism.

There are a number of courses under OSHA training that work as a counter to such heinous acts wherein the employees as well as the employers are educated regarding the impending hazards at a workplace. The OSHA training courses are of varying hours, OSHA 10 hour and OSHA 30 hour safety training. These courses provide an OSHA training certification at the end of every course to indicate the completion of OSHA safety classes.

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