Workplace Violence on the Rise, Office Suicides up 28%: HR Expert Posted: September 17, 2009, 4:45 PM by Karen Hawthorne   A Yale University laboratory technician has been arrested, accused of strangling the young graduate student who worked with him and stuffing her body into a wall cavity inside the campus lab.

While the details of this case are unfolding, news of workplace violence on the increase is circulating. A U.S. human resources firm says that office suicides jumped 28% in 2008 from the previous year and the recession is partly to blame, bringing out the worst in companies.

Corporate Counseling Associates, Inc.(CCA): "...shooting sprees and assaults have become headline news. Other “aggressive” reactions to workplace stress include intentional misinformation, subterfuge, theft and absenteeism."

The answer? Healthy work cultures go a long way to mitigate violence, CCA says. The firm has released a paper to help employers take action:

*Communicate a workplace violence policy and develop employee communications to reinforce the message.
*Establish procedures for reporting incidents of violence.
*Define and create a Threat of Violence (TOV) Team consisting of a cross-section of departments.
*Establish organizational mechanisms to prevent violence.
*Spot the typical warning signs of potential violence.
*Use external and internal communications in response to harmful incidents.

Paper author, Thomas Diamante, Ph.D., is senior vice president of human capital management for CCA:

“Lack of resources is a catalyst that typically drives an employee with a propensity to be violent over the edge,” says Diamante, an HR strategist, author and organizational change expert. “The sad reality is that many people who are anxious in these times are ill-equipped emotionally and may resort to undesirable, counterproductive or perhaps violent measures. Counterproductive behaviors include actions that are bad for the organization, bad for themselves and bad for their co-workers. If support systems aren’t in place, such acts are an ever-present threat.”