33 - Keeping people safe when tensions run high.
Another HR Headache
How to prevent workplace violence before it ever has the chance to happen.
Picture the situation nobody wants to imagine in their own business. A heated argument that goes a step too far. A customer who arrives angry and will not calm down. An employee whose behaviour has been escalating in ways that are starting to frighten the people around them. Most owners assume violence at work is something that happens elsewhere, to other businesses, until the day a situation tips over and they realise they had seen the warning signs and done nothing.
It is tempting to think this is a big-business problem, but small workplaces are far from immune. A frontline team dealing with the public, a falling-out between colleagues that festers, the stress of hard times spilling over into anger. In a small firm there is no security team, no separate building, often no formal plan for what to do if a person becomes a threat. The duty to keep people safe still sits squarely with you under the Health and Safety at Work Act. That duty covers safety from each other and from aggressive outsiders, not just from machinery and slippery floors.
The reassuring truth is that workplace violence is rarely a bolt from the blue. It almost always has a build-up, a pattern of escalating behaviour, a situation that was allowed to fester or a warning that went unheeded. That means it is far more preventable than people assume. The work is not about turning your business into a fortress. It is about reading the signs early, defusing tension before it boils over and having a simple plan so that, if something does happen, people know exactly what to do.
Prevention here is mostly about awareness and a little preparation, not drama. Here is how.
Violence at work almost never arrives out of nowhere. It builds, in plain sight, while everyone hopes it will sort itself out.
Take the early warnings seriously
Most serious incidents are preceded by behaviour that worried people first. Escalating anger, threats brushed off as venting, intimidation, a marked change in someone who is clearly under strain. The common mistake is to explain it away, because naming it feels dramatic and confronting it feels awkward. Do not wait for certainty. If a person’s behaviour is frightening their colleagues, that is reason enough to act, calmly and early, with a conversation, with support or with help from outside if it is needed. The warning signs are only useful if you are willing to heed them.
Defuse tension before it builds
A workplace where conflict is handled early rarely reaches the point of danger. Most aggression grows out of grievances that were left to fester, of people who felt unheard or cornered, of pressure with no outlet. Deal with disputes while they are small. Give people a way to raise problems and be taken seriously. Watch the pressure points, the crunch periods, the difficult restructures, the moments when someone is being performance-managed or let go, because these are when tempers fray. Calm handling of the small stuff is what stops the big stuff ever arriving.
Protect your frontline people
If your team deals with the public, some of them will meet aggression sooner or later, whether it is the angry customer, the intoxicated visitor or the dispute that turns nasty. Do not leave them to face it unprepared. Train people in how to handle an aggressive person, how to keep calm, how to de-escalate and when to simply withdraw and call for help. Set up the physical space sensibly, with clear exits and a way to summon help fast. Make it absolutely clear that walking away is always the right call, because no sale, no complaint and no situation is worth a staff member’s safety.
Have a simple plan everyone knows
When something frightening happens, people freeze unless they already know what to do. You do not need a thick manual. You need a few clear, agreed steps. How to call for help and who to call. How to get people out or to safety. Who takes charge in the moment. Talk it through with the team so it is not a document nobody has read but something people could actually follow under stress. The point of a plan is not the paper. It is that in the worst few minutes, when thinking is hard, everyone already knows their next move.
Get help and take it seriously after the event
Some situations are beyond what you should handle alone and there is no shame in saying so. If there is a credible threat to safety, involve the police without hesitation. For guidance on your obligations and on managing the risk, WorkSafe New Zealand has practical material at worksafe.govt.nz. After any frightening incident, look after the people who were involved, because the effects of a scare or an assault often outlast the event by a long way. Offer real support, take their experience seriously and learn from what happened so the same gap does not open up twice. How you respond afterwards tells your whole team whether their safety genuinely matters to you.
What would you do?
Picture an employee whose temper has been worsening for weeks. There have been raised voices, a punched door and colleagues who have quietly admitted they feel uneasy around him. The tempting response is to hope it blows over, since nothing truly bad has happened yet. That hope is the risk. Act early instead, with a calm, direct conversation about the behaviour and its effect, a genuine offer of support if something underlying is driving it and a clear line about what is and is not acceptable. Bring in professional help if the situation is beyond you and put your people’s safety first at every step. You may defuse something serious before it ever happens. The alternative, waiting for certainty, means waiting for the very thing you most need to prevent.
“Keeping people safe is not only about the hazards you can see. Sometimes the risk walks in on two legs, with the warning signs there for anyone willing to look.”
No one wants to imagine violence in their workplace, but looking away does not keep anyone safe. Preventing it is not about fear or fortifications. It is about taking early warnings seriously, defusing tension while it is small, protecting the people on your frontline, having a plan everyone knows and getting proper help when a situation calls for it. Do that and you are far less likely ever to face the worst. Your people will know, without having to ask, that their safety is something you take as seriously as they do.
Next in the series, how to stamp out harassment and bullying so it is safe for everyone to come to work.