Forms of Abuse › Workplace Violence
Definition
Domestic Violence in the Workplace is any physical assault, threatening behavior, or verbal abuse occurring in the work setting. Examples of workplace violence include:
- Threats or obscene phone calls
- Intimidation
- Harassment of any nature (i.e. being followed; being verbally harassed).
Beacon Program Services
- Evaluation
- Counseling
- Support
- Information on legal issues, how abuse affects a woman, how other women deal with violence
- Referrals to health care providers
- Referrals to community agencies
- Follow-up sessions
- How to handle problems after you leave the relationship
Signs of Domestic Violence in the Workplace
- Changes in behavior and work performance.
- Increased or unexplained absences or arriving late.
- Harassing phone calls from the abuser.
- Bruises or injuries that are unexplained or come with explanations that just do not add up
Impact of abusers on the workplace
- Making physical or sexual assaults or threats against the woman, children, or her co-workers; threats of suicide; threats to take the children or destroy property.
- Making her account for every minute of the day (i.e. abuser may follow her or make frequent phone calls to monitor her whereabouts).
- Canceling her appointments with her health care provider or sabotaging her attempts to attend appointments by not providing childcare or transportation.
- Controlling her use of sick/vacation time (i.e. abuser may have her explain the sick/vacation time she used as reported on her pay stub).
- Making her late for work or sabotaging her performance (i.e. abuser may keep her up all night, destroy her professional clothes, sabotage childcare arrangements, or undermine her training/advancement so she would risk getting fired).
- Isolating her from co-workers, friends, and family so that she had no support system other than the abuser.
