Safety at Work

Women and men are attacked at work. The attackers can be visitors, customers, patients or sometimes just people who are passing through somewhere like a railway station or supermarket. This form of abuse and assault is increasing. The latest figures show that nearly 350,000 people were attacked at work in a single year. In a high proportion of those cases the attacker was under the influence of alcohol.

One trigger for such abuse is that the attacker feels that the victim or the organisation is deliberately keeping them waiting or treating them like a fool.

If you feel threatened in this situation then don’t be embarrassed to ask a colleague for assistance. If the problem is regular, ask the employer to install protective screens, CCTV and personal attack alarms. Remember that if staff have to handle and retain money, the likelihood of an attack increases, so protective equipment should be supplied.

A full health and safety risk assessment should be carried out by the employer, and it should be fully documented. If unacceptable risks are identified, the employer should introduce measures to reduce or remove those risks and threats as soon as is practically possible.

Working outside the office

Some people spend time working outside their office. For example, health workers, social workers, community psychiatric nurses, estate agents and sales representatives spend at least some of the day visiting a variety of addresses. An office environment is usually managed and controlled, but there is often no management and control of the premises that will be visited outside the office.

Anyone, especially women who work away from an office, must take extra care with their safety and security. For example, a female health worker may be asked to visit a man with known mental health problems, who is supposed to be taking medication to control his problem. She is expected to go to his flat with or without an appointment and spend some time there assessing him, or maybe performing tests to see if the medication dosage is right. Social workers visit families where there is known, or there are strong suspicions of, violence and abuse. These are very dangerous situations. Making an appointment, he could lay a trap for her. Visiting without an appointment she might catch him involved in something he should not be doing which could trigger an attack.

In some professions, women make up an extremely high proportion of the staff – significantly more than 50% – in roles such as health visitors, social workers and community psychiatric nurses. In these jobs women are likely to be exposed to violence because they are dealing with disturbed and possibly violent people. They are required to visit those people in their homes; places where help is not immediately available.

Employers are not good at recognising the risks and introducing measures to remove or reduce those risks. For example knowing that attacks and violence are more likely when an attacker has recently been separated, or soon after an incident when domestic violence has been reported. The organisation should recognise the increased risk and take steps to ensure that their employees remain safe in those situations. In those circumstances the organisation could:

• Ask the police to make a low-key appearance to attend for safety reasons.
• Insist that when there is a higher risk of violence, or where there has recently been violence, that clients/patients are asked to attend the offices for interviews and appraisals.
• Possibly insist that in all such cases the employees who perform a home visit should be experienced and know how to handle disturbed patients/clients.
• Insist that in all such cases at least two employees should attend the home address. They should never allow the client to get between them and the exit door, and should withdraw at the first sign of trouble.
• The organisation could invest in technology that would help employees identify, plan for and cope with potentially violent people. For example the organisation could invest in IT systems that record and display warning signs about patients. Employees could be equipped with emergency panic buttons that track and report on the location of an employee to summon urgent assistance if they need it.
• Employers must accept that aggression and violence take many forms. An employee may be subjected to aggressive verbal abuse, swearing, threats and intimidation, before any violence is offered. The employees may need extra time to recover from these encounters, even though they were not actually punched or kicked. Employees may need counselling to help them deal with the stress of the violence they deal with and encounter in their role.

All employers and employees must ensure that they take basic levels of care, and that staff are properly trained and follow established procedures, using any equipment supplied.

Employee

Employees should take steps to ensure that they are safe.

• Make sure that your employer acknowledges your increased exposure to risks. Put it in writing and make sure that the employer takes steps to introduce training and support procedures to minimise those risks.
• As an employee you should follow all safety procedures strictly at all times. Don’t break the rules. Arranging to attend a last-minute meeting that the office knows nothing about to try to reach this month’s sales figures is not worth risking your life for.
• Use common sense. Meeting a client in his office at 10.30 am on a Tuesday, when he works for a large corporation, is probably safe – even though you should still follow the procedures laid down. If you are asked to meet a Mr Smith in a back street office, self preservation should be switching in as you don’t have much to go on there. However, being asked to meet ‘John’ in the car park at the Oak Tree roundabout on the A435 (because he is really busy and is between meetings) is a huge risk.
• Where possible arrange to meet clients for the first time at your own office.
• Do your own checks on the alleged client.
  • Take time to visit their office address. If it is a vacant lot check the address you have been given against the place you are looking at. If it is a vacant site and you are not a builder who could be asked to build something on that site, consider calling the police – something funny seems to be going on.
  • If the ‘office’ is just a single shabby mobile cabin, be suspicious.
  • If it is an office building, is the company name you have been given prominently displayed? If it’s a corporate headquarters things are looking good. If it is a shared building look for a smaller nameplate.
  • Talk to any receptionist or security staff. Tell them that you have to come there in a few days’ time to meet Mr Biggins of Biggins Supplies and you want to make sure you are in the right place. If they say, ‘Who?’, be very careful. If they say, ”Yes, this is the place,’ ask a few more questions — it makes business sense anyway.
  • What can they tell you about the company? How many staff do they have? How long have they been there? Do they have any other offices or buildings – if so what is the address (claim you are looking for another sales lead, even if you are just checking them out)? What do they do exactly? Do they have marked vehicles? What is Mr Biggins like? Is he based in this office?
  • Check the phone numbers you have been given. If you were only given a mobile number be careful.
  • Call the phone number given. See who answers. If it is a pub and the landlord asks who you want, be very careful. If it is a corporate receptionist ask a few questions and find out more under the guise of checking up about your forthcoming meeting – is there a parking space available? Where are they exactly? etc.
• Consider taking a colleague with you on your first visit. You don’t have to say it was because you didn’t trust them, or that their company looked a little shady. You could say that the colleague is a trainee, or part of a quality assurance scheme aimed at improving services to customers. Use any excuse you have to.
• Never give out a home address, home phone number or any other personal information. And remember that with a name and initials and a home phone number they can go to the library and look up your home address.
• If a client calls to change the plans, be suspicious. The closer to the meeting the call is made, the higher your suspicion level should be. They may have a genuine reason for changing the arrangements, but they may be attempting to get you alone, with no trace of what happened in your office diary.
• Gut feelings are based on thousands of years of genetic development. Gut feelings work. If it feels wrong, make your excuses and leave.

Employer

The employer must introduce systems and procedures that will equip a member of staff to work off site. They should also provide a support structure that will work to maintain employee safety and security.

• Employers should undertake health and safety risk assessment of all roles in their company, from the cleaner using powerful chemicals to the lone female who has to visit clients and or patients away from the office.
• Where risks are identified, the employer should introduce training, equipment and procedures to remove those risks or reduce their impact to an acceptable level. For example, visiting a mentally disturbed patient with a history of violence with a male colleague and police in attendance would be acceptable. It would not be acceptable if the employer didn’t mention the mental health problem, and simply told the visitor that she should be careful. The employer should introduce a ‘lone working policy’ to protect vulnerable employees.
• Staff members should be fully trained to identify the possible risks associated with the business/organisation/agency/service (here called the employer) and their clients.
• The employer should supply staff members with any necessary protective equipment. That may be an attack alarm, a two-way radio, a mobile phone, or even a stab-proof vest. Employees should of course be fully trained in using the equipment issued.
• Employees should be able to feed back information where training or equipment needs updating.
• Employer guidelines, processes and procedures should be written so that they take account of possible threats. For example the human resources office could include a domestic violence policy in their induction, training and awareness campaigns.
• Where incidents have been reported, the employer should review their processes, procedures and equipment, and consider amending or upgrading it to counteract the newly identified threat.
• Where an incident escalates and violence is threatened or given, there should be a review of the training and procedures to confirm that they were adequate, and to identify any issues that came out of it.
• The employer should ensure that managers and supervisors are properly trained in how to check for risks, assign appropriate staff and check up at appropriate times to ensure that staff are safe and well.
• Managers and supervisors should review performance to capture any incidents where staff have become lax and have not followed established processes and procedures.
• Employers must introduce adequate systems to protect employees who work out of the office. For example:
  • A documented risk assessment of the role, identifying risks, threats and likelihood. It should identify the problems employees may face, how often the problems may occur and how severe the damage or injury that any incident may cause.
  • A list of the equipment and procedures that have been put in place to avoid or otherwise overcome these problems.
  • Appropriate training for employees that will teach them how to properly use the equipment, procedures and other safety measures that are in place.
  • A diary and reporting system that shows where each employee who works out of the office will be at any time.
  • A system where anyone an employee has to visit should be subject to basic security and safety checks, as described above. For example, employees should not be sent to meet somebody when the only contact detail is a mobile phone number.

Domestic Violence

Don’t let him or her catch you reading this if you are subject to any level of domestic violence. Domestic violence is surprisingly common. It is reported from mansions to leafy suburbs, tower blocks to private estates, newly weds to couples approaching their golden wedding anniversary, and wealthy stock brokers to unemployed road sweepers.

One quarter of all cases of assault and violence that are reported to the police in the UK are classified as domestic violence.

About 25% of women have suffered, or will suffer from, an assault from a partner. When that violence becomes a recurring pattern and is connected to a range of controlling behaviours, it undermines self-belief and causes the victim to become depressed and over anxious in addition to any physical harm.

In about 50% of cases where a woman is murdered, it is established that her husband or ex-partner killed her.

Domestic violence is a difficult subject and I am not an expert, but the following information may help. There are many different forms of domestic violence and abuse, for example:

• physical – what everyone thinks about when discussing domestic violence, where the victim actually suffers physical assault.
• sexual – rape and sexual abuse is quite common in domestic violence.
• emotional/psychological – where a victim may be constantly humiliated, told that they are worthless, stupid and incapable.
• financial – where the victim may not be allowed to have any money, or the abuser may take charge of all resources just letting the victim have £10 a day to feed the family. The abuser may take her money, force her into prostitution, or force her to commit fraud.
• social – where a victim may be kept in isolation, refused permission to go out of the house alone, use the telephone, see friends or have a life outside the relationship.

Most victims of domestic violence are female, though there are some cases where the female is the abuser and the male in the relationship is the victim. It can also happen in same-sex relationships.

I have seen many cases of domestic violence and the immense strain it puts on the victims, especially when they are in love with the abuser. In those circumstances the victim almost resists admitting and putting a name to what is happening. They often hide what is happening from the rest of the world, maybe from shame or a sense of loyalty. They somehow feel that the abuse must be their own fault. At the same time they often keep the abuse secret from the people who know them best, neighbours, family and colleagues at work. Unfortunately that allows the abuser to carry on abusing.

Sometimes the abuser is in turmoil, and they know in their heart that what they are doing is wrong. If they have abused their partner, they can burst into tears, beg for forgiveness and claim that they will never do it again. In my experience the abuse never really stops, and all too often escalates to greater levels of injury and abuse. Often people who may see signs of the abuse minimise and excuse it, which reinforces the abuser’s sense of entitlement and justification for the abuse.

As mentioned above, abuse can take many forms. A man might constantly accuse his wife of having affairs, refuse to let her go out alone and constantly call to check up on her. Any case an ongoing pattern of coercive control constitutes domestic abuse. A man who frequently humiliates his wife in shops or social situations is an abuser, as is a woman who does the same to her husband.

What the options are

Very often the victim feels that they cannot leave the relationship. There may be children and there is always a money worry, as well as family and religious pressure which can come to bear as well. But there is help and support available if you make that initial contact and ask for it.

As the victim, you should know in your heart if things will ever change. Look back, is the abuse getting worse or more frequent? Have you tried everything you can think of, including marriage guidance or counselling? I suggest that you seriously consider speaking to somebody about escaping from the relationship. Most important of all, where verbal and psychological abuse has escalated to physical beatings you should get out of the relationship as soon as you can. Though the victim may need to leave the family home to start with to find a safe haven and initiate the process, where possible the courts should remove the abuser, so that the victim (and any children) can remain in the family home.

The police have powers to deal with people who attack and abuse others, whether they are strangers, married, in a relationship or living together. Assault is a crime no matter what the circumstances. Judges can punish an offender, and jail him or her. By court order the victim can be awarded the family home and custody of the children. If necessary the court can also issue an order which can stop the offender harassing the victim, even barring the abuser from being inside a certain geographical area. Breaches of these orders can result in the offender being jailed. But, for any of this remedial action to happen, the victim has to summon the courage to speak to somebody to ask for help.

Am I a victim of domestic violence?

You will already know that the way you are being treated isn’t right and your instincts will tell you that this isn’t a healthy relationship.

When it has been a long relationship, or you started out being deeply in love, it can be hard to accept and name what has happened to you. The following questions may help you to confirm what you probably already know, or at least suspect.

You know the difference between a private joke and deliberate public humiliation. You know the difference between being frugal and keeping you from having any money. You should know the difference between an occasional bad day, and frequent temper tantrums. Answer the following questions honestly. Don’t write in the book; somebody may see it. You will soon get a feel for the number of’yes’ answers you give.

• Does your partner make you account for every minute of the day and prove to him that you have not been with somebody else?
• Does your partner frequently accuse you of having affairs when it is clear to anyone that you were doing the laundry, out shopping or taking the kids to the dentist?
• Does your partner try to control the people you are allowed to meet, perhaps even trying to stop you from seeing your relatives?
• Does your partner refuse to let you use the telephone or sit and listen in if you have any conversations?
• Does your partner object to you having friends of any sort, particularly friends of the opposite sex?
• Does your partner refuse to let you out of the house alone?
• Does your partner criticise you a lot, making you feel that you can’t do anything right?
• Does your partner get really angry over nothing that you can identify, then make you feel that whatever it was it was your fault?
• Does your partner get angry a lot?
• When your partner is angry and in a temper, are you scared that he might actually hit you?
• Has your partner ever used force against you, pushed you, slapped you or pulled you from one room to another?
• After hurting you, has your partner ever threatened you with greater violence and pain if you tell anybody that he has hurt you?
• If your partner does get into a temper, is that partly because he has been taking drugs or drinking alcohol?
• Does your partner keep tight control of the family money, insisting that the little money you are allowed to have is strictly accounted for in detail and that you produce receipts at the end of the day?
• Does your partner take or steal your money or take any child benefit money?
• Has your partner ever accused you of keeping money for yourself, hiding it or spending money on somebody else?
• Has your partner discouraged or prevented you from working or finishing your education?
• If you have a job has your partner embarrassed you or harassed you at work?
• Does your partner humiliate and, or embarrass you by making nasty comments in front of other people?
• Does your partner try to punish you by destroying or throwing away things that belong to you, perhaps favourite possessions from your childhood or family keepsakes?
• If you have children, does your partner seem to punish them unnecessarily as a way of getting back at you?
• Has your partner told you to make sure that the children and toys are cleared out of the way by the time he comes home?
• Has your partner ever threatened to kill himself, take, injure or kill you or the children to stop you from leaving him?
• Has your partner ever threatened you with a weapon? A kitchen knife or a walking stick? Or pointedly told you that you could easily fall down stairs or under a lorry and hint that nobody would know it wasn’t an accident?
• Has your partner ever tried to, or made you, break the law in some way?
• Has your partner ever forced you to have sex against your will?

If you answered yes to more than a handful of the questions above, and it is in any way a common or regular occurrence, you are certainly not in a healthy relationship. If you answer yes to a lot of these questions, I think that you are being abused. As soon as you can, seek advice. If you and/or any children have been physically abused seek urgent assistance. The police can help and advise, even if it is only to put you in touch with a women’s refuge. The National Domestic Violence Hotline Freephone 0808 2000 247 is a very good first point of contact.

Physical abuse never goes away, it just increases in frequency, extent, duration and injury.

Preparing to leave

If you think you may have to leave the house to protect yourself and/or your children you should be ready to go. You don’t want to walk out of the house at 2 am on a January morning with the kids and 42 pence in your pocket.

If you contact the hotline or the local police, they should be able to arrange for you and your children to stay in the family home, and for your abusive partner to find alternative accommodation. It may mean that you have to move to a women’s shelter for a while.

If the abuse is serious enough for you to have to leave the house for your own or your children’s safety, make some preparations. Don’t make it obvious but quietly collect what you need. Below are some suggestions.

• Warm coats ready in the hall where they are kept anyway.
• Spare house and car keys held by a close relative or very close and trustworthy friend.
• As much money as you can find – enough for a taxi, or a few nights in a small hotel until you get the matter resolved with the local housing authority. A relative or very close friend could hold that for you.
• Collect the phone numbers for the National Hotline, women’s refuge, social services, council housing department, relatives, police domestic crime team and so on – again possibly held by that relative or close friend.
• If possible, spare clothes for you and your children. They can still be in the airing cupboard or wardrobe, but stacked ready to take. You might not have time to sort out three or four outfits, if they are stacked ready you can just grab them and go if you need to.
• Documents that you might need: cheque book, benefit book, doctor’s card, hospital appointment cards, birth certificates, passport etc. They are probably all kept in the same place, but if they were in a bundle with an innocent elastic band around them, they would be easy to grab if you had to leave in a hurry.
• If you have children don’t forget to include a few special toys or objects for them. Having their favourite teddy bear or red jumper will be a comfort to them in several ways.
• Take anything else that you might need. For example, make sure that prescription medicine is collected together ready to take in a hurry if you need to.

All of this will fill a sizeable bag or even a small case. Don’t collect these items and then leave them next to the front door where they will be seen or found. Don’t allow your preparations to trigger another rage or beating. If your cases are usually kept in a back room, you could leave the case there but start packing the things you need into it so it is ready to go. You may be able to take one or two items at a time and ask a relative or close friend to hold them for you. In confidence tell them what they are for and tell them why you might need them. They will have to agree to being woken at any time of the day or night for you to collect your necessities.

When assault happens

Many women stay in an abusive relationship for the sake of the children, but children see and know far more than parents think. They can feel the tension and often see the verbal and physical abuse or lie in bed listening to the arguments. If they do they will already be unhappy, anxious and even depressed. Faced with an ongoing abusive relationship it is better for them if you leave so you can all feel safe, rather than put up with the abuse to maintain the illusion of a family.

Especially where children are involved, you must not suffer in silence, because things almost always get worse. Find a safe way to call the hotline, or call the police to deal with the abuser. Domestic violence is an assault and the abuser will be arrested and charged. Don’t leave any children at home unless your plan involves pretending to go to the shops but coming back with the police.

Seek expert advice and follow it. Many victims weaken when the abuser realises that their violence and abuse may have broken the relationship. Many abusers do love their partner, but they simply cannot control their suspicion, anger, temper and violence. If they realise that they might lose you, they often cry and declare that it will never happen again. Experience says that no matter what the promise, an abuser will abuse again.

Call the police. Explain the situation to trusted neighbours and even give them permission to call the police if they see or hear a dispute or fight; their intervention may stop a bad situation from getting worse.

What Men Can Do

I am hoping that men will have read this chapter and have a tiny bit more of an insight into what it is like to be a woman. Perhaps they now realise how worrying it may be just walking home from the bus stop after dark. Men should see how upsetting it could be to a woman or even a couple of women if a group of lads are ‘just having a laugh’ on the train.

I am hoping that men will see how what they see as innocent behaviour can make a woman feel threatened. There are things that men can do which will make women feel safer.

• Men should accept that under some circumstances a woman may be intimidated by, concerned about, or actually scared of an innocent man or group of men.
• Men must maintain their own awareness to avoid muggers, for example. At the same time, use that awareness to recognise the circumstances where a woman may be intimidated simply by your male presence. Where possible modify your behaviour to put her mind at rest, or at least reduce her fear.
• When you are in a group, with your increased understanding of the vulnerability and possible worry a woman may be feeling, be aware. If there is a woman or group of women in the vicinity and you and your friends are a little too lively, calm your group down. If they are drunk and beyond calming, get them talking about something that will take all of their concentration, something important like who will win the match at the weekend, or the far more weighty pizza or kebab question. Acknowledge the woman/women with an apologetic nod or shrug and go on your way.
• If you are walking in the same direction as a woman on her own or after dark, you know that she may be worried that a man is following her. Don’t walk behind her; cross the road and walk on the other side or even consider taking a different route home.
• When getting on a train or bus, unless it is the only seat available, don’t select the seat opposite or beside a woman. By sitting near a woman on an otherwise empty bus or train you will be invading her ‘safety zone’. Sit a few seats away and even if you think she is attractive, don’t keep looking at her or trying to talk to her.
• Realise how threatening simple actions can be. Staring/ogling, whistling, passing comments and jostling can be threatening to a woman, particularly when men are in a group. Actually, while we are on the subject, don’t shout crude comments at passing women at all; only losers do that.
• If you are thinking of chatting to a woman alone, for example at a bus stop or railway station, remember that she won’t know you mean no harm, so think again. On the other hand, if you sit silently staring at her, you will worry her more than if you said something. Try an innocent, ‘Have I missed the number seven?’ If she clearly doesn’t want to talk, don’t push it.
• If you are in a vehicle and are driving past a lone woman, remember that you can easily scare her. If you slow down and stop behind or beside her she will probably be worrying that you might want to attack her. If you need to stop, be courteous and stop some way behind her so that she won’t feel threatened.
• If you see a woman in trouble, don’t run up to her. The sight of a strange man running up could really scare her. By all means offer assistance, but do it in a non-threatening way. For example:
  • If she is being attacked, run to help but shout to make her aware of what you are doing and why. Repeat her call to somebody to call the police, and make it clear that you are coming to assist her not to assist the attacker. Shout something like, ‘Hey you! Leave her alone! Help! Call the police’ so she knows you are on her side.
  • Your intention should be to chase the attacker away before he can cause harm.
  • Have your mobile ready to use. Stop a few paces away from the woman outside her personal space and ask if she is OK. Hand her your mobile phone making sure that any locks are released and tell her to call the police. People in shock don’t react well to advice, so give her an instruction: ‘Dial 999 and get the police.’
  • If you do tell the woman to call the police, make sure she knows where she is – tell her the location.
  • If other assistance is coming consider chasing the attacker. If you don’t want to risk it or the attacker has already run off, stay with the victim and call the police yourself. If you think she may need an ambulance ask for one at the same time. Be ready to give police a description of the attacker, what he wore, and which way he went. Tell the police that the offender ran off, and a dog may be able to track him if the area is quiet.
  • Protect any evidence at the scene and don’t let other people contaminate it. For example a police dog will be able to track the offender as long as dozens of passers by haven’t been walking back and forth where the offender made off. Don’t let a spectator stand on the tissue he dropped, or pick up the bottle he was holding.
  • Stay with the victim, and protect her from further assault or attack. It has been know for a light-fingered bystander to take a victim’s handbag while she lay waiting for an ambulance.
  • Allow one woman or person she knows to comfort her, again to minimise contamination of evidence.
  • Stay with her and keep talking calmly, keep saying things like, ‘He’s gone’, ”You’re OK’, ‘The police are coming, don’t worry.’ Reassurance is important now.
  • If other people are around, send two of them to the main road or junction to flag down the police and, or ambulance when they turn up, so that help arrives as soon as possible.
  • Depending on who was around at the time of the incident try to keep potential witnesses at the scene until the police arrive. If somebody looks like they are going to walk away, speak to them yourself or assign somebody to go and talk to them. Say something like, ”What did you see? The police want to talk to you.’ At least get their name and address, but if possible keep them at the scene.
  • Remain until you have spoken to the police and the victim has been safely taken away.
• As a male, and with your new insight to the problems and worries a woman alone may have, be more considerate of female friends, colleagues and family members by giving them a lift or walking them home when you can. If you do, make sure they are safely indoors before you leave.
• Lastly, challenge the loutish, crude, and stupid actions, comments or behaviour of other men. You know that it isn’t mature, clever or funny. Make sure that they know it isn’t acceptable at all.