Preventing Violence in Your Workplace

Workplace violence happens. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health estimates that, on average, 20 workers are murdered and about 18,000 are assaulted in the workplace each week in the United States.  Workplace violence includes actual or threatened physical or verbal abuse of another person or property. Employees, as well as non-employees—e.g., vendors, contract workers, consultants, employees’ family members, customers, clients, former employees, and even strangers may commit this violence” (Virtus Online).

In addition to the human costs of such violence, what are some of the economic loss from workplace violence?  Do you know of any cases?  As a manager, what would you do to prevent workplace violence?