A New Me Foundation, INC.


Thursday, September 29, 2011

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE & THE WORKPLACE

















Today on the Facebook page of A New Me Foundation, the "Topic of the Day" was about how we can help prevent violence to victims of domestic violence in the workplace. I provided several links to help get a better understanding for both the employee and the employer.

I've heard so many victims (mainly women) of domestic violence that talk about how their abuser stalks them at work or calls them a 1,000 times a day at their workplace, causing policy conflicts with their employer.

Know a situation like this? Let's look closer:

You have a co-worker that is always anxious whenever the telephone rings, this is the fifth call she's received in 30 minutes. She answers the call and shortly afterward, she retreats to the restroom in hopes that no one else is aware of her sudden fear or tears. To the staff, maybe "Jennifer" just urgently had to use the restroom. Nothings wrong with that right? What the staff doesn't know is the telephone conversation that Jennifer just had, was her abusive partner threatening to come up to the workplace and embarrass her if she doesn't come home soon. Jennifer rushes to the restroom because (1) she's afraid and crying, (2) she's been taking prescription pills that her doctor gave her to help calm her anxiety attacks, so she pops a few in her mouth now, (3) she's thinking of an excuse to leave work now before he shows up. She comes up with a way to convince her boss that she is suddenly feeling sick and needs to go home. Before her boss can give her an answer, her partner has come up to her workplace and began loud talking and using profanity to her co-workers. Demanding that someone tells him where Jennifer is. Jennifer is in her boss office stiff and facial expressions are nonchalant, thanks to those pills. The boss is tired of this scene carrying out and decided to terminate Jennifer and asks her to immediately leave the premises ......

Stories like this play out often at the workplace of a victim of domestic violence. As a community, we need to find out more resources and ways to help this victim and help prevent another "incident report" documentation filed at the workplace.

Here is a link to help start a discussion about ways to help start education, policies and procedures for the employee and employer of domestic violence in the workplace:



Remember together, we can help break the silence of domestic violence in our communities.

No comments:

Post a Comment