UNIT VII STUDY GUIDE
Workplace Violence and Sexual Harassment
Issues on the Construction Site
Course Learning Outcomes for Unit VII
Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:
1. Evaluate emerging issues related to construction sites.
1.1 Explain how workplace violence can occur on a construction site and how a safety professional
can pre-plan for that occurrence.
2. Analyze high-risk hazards common to construction sites.
2.1 Designate safe spaces in open construction sites for hazards created by workplace violence.
2.2 Prepare for the potential of sexual harassment or violence issues on construction sites.
3. Examine technology useful for improving safety outcomes.
3.1 Explain the newest technology available to the construction site in order to prevent workplace
violence casualties.
3.2 Explain current and new methods that are available to the jobsite for prevention and elimination
of sexual harassment on the construction site.
Course/Unit
Learning Outcomes
1.1
2.1
2.2
3.1
3.2
Learning Activity
Unit Lesson
Article: The Four Most Common Types of Workplace Violence
Article: Workplace Violence Prevention: Readiness and Response
Chapter 15
Unit VII Assessment
Unit Lesson
Webpage: These $20,000 Bulletproof Shelters for Classrooms Can Withstand
Shooters and Category 5 Hurricanes
Chapter 17
Unit VII Assessment
Unit Lesson
Webpage: Examples of Sexual and Non-Sexual Violence
Article: What Is Sexual Harassment and How Prevalent Is It?
Chapter 19
Unit VII Assessment
Unit Lesson
Chapter 19
Unit VII Assessment
Unit Lesson
Chapter 19
Unit VII Assessment
Required Unit Resources
Chapter 15: Emergency Response Plan
Chapter 17: Preventing Violence in the Workplace
Chapter 19: Stress, Ergonomics, and Behavior-Based Safety
In order to access the following resources, click the links below.
OSH 4310, Special Topics in Construction Safety
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Title
The four most common types of workplace violence. (2014, July 9). Campus Safety Magazine.
Doyle, A. (2019, September 12). Examples of sexual and non-sexual harassment. The Balance Careers.
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/examples-of-sexual-and-non-sexual-harassment-2060884
Garfield, L. (2018, March 25). These $20,000 bulletproof shelters for classrooms can withstand shooters and
Category 5 hurricanes. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/shelter-in-place-designsballistic-shelters-for-classrooms-2018-3
J.M.F. (2017, November 24). What is sexual harassment and how prevalent is it? The Economist.
https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2017/11/24/what-is-sexual-harassment-and-howprevalent-is-it
Romano, S. J., Levi-Minzi, M. E., Rugala, E. A., & Van Hasselt, V. B. (2011, January 1). Workplace
violence prevention: Readiness and response. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin.
https://leb.fbi.gov/articles/featured-articles/workplace-violence-prevention-readiness-andresponse/view
Unit Lesson
Overview
It seems like you cannot go a day without reading about or hearing about a workplace violence issue.
Shootings at major retailers or at churches have become the norm. School shootings and workplace killings
are so common now in our society that hardly anyone notices or raises an eyebrow as to the uniqueness or
ugliness of them. The forms of workplace violence that make the national news headlines are usually the
ones with the high body count. There are, however, other forms of workplace violence that are not reported
and are even more prevalent in our society. Fistfights on the jobsite occur almost every day somewhere in our
country. Domestic violence spills over into the workplace, and although workplace violence and sexual
harassment do not always go hand-in-hand, more often than not, one can lead to the other.
Categories of Workplace Violence
Textbooks and articles about the issue of workplace violence abound. There are several different categories
into which workplace violence can fall. One category would be the worker involved with the criminal who is
unknown to the worker. Think of the gas station attendant who is injured during a robbery by an unknown
assailant. Neither person knows the other, but because of their interaction, one is injured or killed. This is
more of a random act of violence than a targeted act. The location is the target, not the worker. This is also
referred to as criminal intent workplace violence (The Four Most Common, 2014).
Another type of workplace violence involves a person providing the service to a customer/client/patient (The
Four Most Common, 2014). An example of this might be when the customer receives the bill for the food
from a server at a restaurant and is not happy with the charge amount or level of service. The customer then
becomes violent toward the server or manager of the establishment and an assault occurs. Another example
is the patient who demands to be seen and treated at a clinic, but the providers refuse to serve the patient.
This occurs frequently when the patient has a certain expectation of the outcome for the visit such as a
narcotics prescription, and the healthcare provider feels that a narcotic would not be called for in the normal
standard of care. The patient becomes violent, and the provider is assaulted (Phillips, 2017).
Personal Violence From Domestic Disturbances
Personal violence is another example of workplace violence. This is where the domestic violence overflows
into the workplace. The estranged spouse or partner comes to the workplace to talk out the issues of the
couple. One thing leads to another and before anyone knows it, violence ensues. Emotions run high in
OSH 4310, Special Topics in Construction Safety
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circumstances such as this. Most times, people think of this type of violence as
male-on-female,
but it can be
UNIT
x STUDY GUIDE
of any gender to any gender. There is even a song performed by famous country
Titlesinger Carrie Underwood
about the female in the story doing damage to the mans truck by way of some keys, a baseball bat, and a
knife (Underwood, 2005). Should that situation happen at work, then it becomes workplace violence. This
type of violence, the domestic version, is one of the most dangerous for local law enforcement officers
(Schreyer, 2018).
Going Postal
The last example of workplace violence is the coworker against coworker (The Four Most Common, 2014).
For various reasons, individuals have some sort of disagreement at work, and violence is the outcome. Little
things build up between workers that on the surface are mostly nothing, but because of the close
surroundings and extended time frames that people at work spend with each other, the little things boil over
and become physical manifestations such as assault and battery. The term going postal comes from a
massacre performed by a disgruntled part-time postal worker in 1986 in which 14 people were killed followed
by a string of copycat, murderous rampages enacted by post office workers, which made the phrase going
postal synonymous with flying off the handle because of pressure at work (Bovsun, 2010). In todays lexicon,
people use this term frequently when they are going to lose control and create chaos and havoc. These are
the scenarios when the employee gets fired and decides that they have nothing to lose, so they return to the
worksite with a weapon and start taking out the people they perceive as their nemeses. This is usually the
most recognized type of workplace violence because this is the type that makes the most headlines with local
and national news outlets. This type of violence is the category in which most school shootings fall. Most
students do not carry weapons with them daily. The student who comes to school with a weapon intent on
carrying out violence on their fellow classmates generally has a target and a plan. It may not be coworker-oncoworker, but it is student-on-student or student-on-teacher acts of violence.
How to Prepare
We have now described the types of workplace violence that as safety personnel we should be aware of and
plan for. What does the risk assessment matrix have to say about this? Does the safety plan or safety
management system have anything to say on these issues, or is this topic the third rail for the workplace?
Construction sites are no different than any other workplace when it comes to workplace violence. Because of
the close proximity of tools that can be used as weapons, this issue of workplace violence becomes even
more of a concern. What can be done to prevent this from occurring? Remember that as safety professionals,
we are trying to eliminate, substitute, engineer out, administratively control, or provide personal protective
equipment (PPE) for the hazards. Think of the upside-down pyramid of the safety hierarchy. So much time
and energy is spent on other forms of injury or death prevention on the worksite, yet almost 10% of all
fatalities are from one person purposely injuring another on the jobsite (Occupational Safety and Health
Administration, n.d.).
Run, Hide, Fight
What should one do when something starts happening
on the jobsite? At this point it is far too late to try to
control the carnage. This question must be answered
far in advance so that the employees are aware and
prepared for the circumstance. The current thinking for
employees is to run, hide, or fight. This has become
the mantra of awareness and preparation for
workplace violence responses for the employee
(Romano et al., 2011). Run or get away from the
situation as fast as possible. In a recent video of a
(Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers, 2019)
church shooting, all three of these responses can be
seen as the parishioners are responding to the
shooting. In a matter of 6 seconds from the time the shooter starts firing his weapon to when the gunman is
killed by an armed church member, other members of the church can be seen trying to get out of the way.
Some are seen crouching down behind the pews in order to stay out of the line of fire, and some are getting
ready to fight (Fedschun & Betz, 2019). The first and least dangerous of these actions is to run. Get out and
stay out of the line of fire. At work, the focus should be to get to a pre-planned assembly area and wait out the
OSH 4310, Special Topics in Construction Safety
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incident. Instruct the employees not to leave the area until accounted for. In any
workplace
scenario,
UNIT
x STUDY
GUIDE all
workers must be accounted for on any given dayeven more so when emergencies
Title are occurring.
Hide or shelter in place is the next action that employees involved in workplace violence incidents should be
instructed on (Romano et al., 2011). Have a place that can be secured from the inside like a tornado shelter
or other enclosed spacea place where people can stay and not be exposed to the person intent on doing
harm. This should be a place where if the shooter decides he wants to shoot through the walls that the bullets
will not penetrate. Many decades ago, school children were taught to hide under their desks in the event of a
nuclear attack. Maybe that was not the best idea back then and probably would not work in todays incidents.
There are containers now that can be purchased by the school and placed into each classroom where the
students can escape and be secured. The entire class can enter and secure the container from the inside
(Garfield. 2018). The shooter cannot get into this space and cannot shoot into it. There is new technology
being created for just this situation, and as safety professionals, it is up to us to think ahead and provide safe
shelter for our employees in the event that such an occurrence should happen.
Fight like your life depends on it because it does (Romano et al., 2011). If the first two actions cannot protect
the worker from harm, then the worker must come to the realization that if they do not protect themselves,
they will become victims. The person intent on committing harm has already made up their mind that violence
is the answer. As victims, we generally do not think about this factor until it is too late. As previously described
in the scenario above, an entire incident can be over in less than 10 secondsnot a lot of time to ponder and
marinate on the ramifications of ones actions. In order to prevent being a victim, an employee must go from
zero to full on fight mode in the literal blink of an eye. The amount of violence being visited upon that victim
must be overcome with equal or more violence in order to successfully survive the incident. Frankly, most
people cannot make this switch in their mindsets that quickly. It is foreign to most people to think that in a
matter of less than 10 seconds, they might have to kill their attacker in order to survive. It is something that
must be ingrained into the work force. If it comes to this step, only one of the people in the violent interaction
is going to survive. It is up to us as safety professionals to make sure our workforce is aware and prepared for
this life-and-death decision-making step.
Sexual Harassment
No discussion on workplace violence can be complete without discussing another aspect of the run up to
violence, and that is the sexual harassment issue. One thing here can lead to another quite quickly. Take the
situation where one employee is sexually harassed at work and files a legitimate complaint. The person
committing the harassment is terminated. The terminated employee now returns to the worksite to take out
their aggression on the person they harassed. The mindset of someone has to pay comes to the forefront
here. This is, of course, the worst-case outcome of a sexual harassment incident. In todays work world,
sexual harassment awareness training has become an annual occurrence. For employees to not understand
what sexual harassment actions are is simply an easy way out of their disturbing behavior. Yet it continues to
happen daily on our jobsites.
Sexual harassment can occur between any genders. Unwanted jokes or comments are an issue. Pictures or
posters hanging in ones work area can be considered sexual harassment. Unwanted touching or closing in
on ones personal space is another example, and of course, the most commonly known type of sexual
harassment is this-for-that harassment (Doyle, 2019). An example of this could be where a person can be
promoted if they perform some type of sexual favor to the person granting the promotion. In the workplace,
this is most commonly seen in the area where one person has authority or power over another. A foreman will
grant a special task to the person providing a sexual favor over someone who will not provide that special
favor. If the person who is asked to provide the favor refuses, then a derogatory performance evaluation or
demotion is given to the person being asked to provide the sexual favor. Do it and good things will happen for
you, or do not do it and bad things will happen to you. In the workplace today, there is no room for this type of
behavior. Yet it continues to happen everywhere in all work settings (J.M.F., 2017).
The reason these issues are considered for this course in special topics in construction safety is that it
happens so frequently even after awareness and education are provided. The safety professional must be in
front of these issues before they happen on the jobsite. The safety professional can be out front by having
their safety management systems and safety plans incorporating these topics and providing the hierarchy of
safety controls to these issues. It is most easily controlled when the situation does not happen as opposed to
OSH 4310, Special Topics in Construction Safety
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trying to control the situation once it is underway. A simple metaphor for this safety
is simply
this:
UNIT issue
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GUIDE
toothpaste in the tube is easy to control but once it is out of the tube, good luck
getting it back in the tube.
Title
References
Bovsun, M. (2010, August 15). Mailman massacre: 14 die after Patrick Sherrill goes postal in 1986
shootings. New York Daily News. https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/mailman-massacre-14die-patrick-sherrill-postal-1986-shootings-article-1.204101
Doyle, A. (2019, September 12). Examples of sexual and non-sexual harassment. The Balance Careers.
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/examples-of-sexual-and-non-sexual-harassment-2060884
Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers. (2019, August 5). How to respond when an active shooter is in
your vicinity [Image].
https://www.fletc.gov/sites/default/files/styles/fletc_wcm_page_content/public/19_0805_cisa_activeshooter-preparedness.jpg?itok=ZdhT5lsp
Fedschun, T., & Betz, B. (2019, December 29). Texas church shooting: Gunman kills 2, heroic congregants
take down shooter. Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-church-shooting-texas-injuredactive
The four most common types of workplace violence. (2014, July 9). Campus Safety Magazine.
Garfield, L. (2018, March 25). These $20,000 bulletproof shelters for classrooms can withstand shooters and
Category 5 hurricanes. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/shelter-in-place-designsballistic-shelters-for-classrooms-2018-3
J.M.F. (2017, November 24). What is sexual harassment and how prevalent is it? The Economist.
https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2017/11/24/what-is-sexual-harassment-and-howprevalent-is-it
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (n.d.). Workplace violence: Overview.
https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/workplaceviolence/
Phillips, K. (2017, July 29). A doctor was killed for refusing to prescribe opioids, authorities say. The
Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/07/29/a-doctor-waskilled-for-refusing-to-prescribe-opioids-authorities-say/
Romano, S. J., Levi-Minzi, M. E., Rugala, E. A., & Van Hasselt, V. B. (2011, January 1). Workplace violence
prevention: Readiness and response. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin.
https://leb.fbi.gov/articles/featured-articles/workplace-violence-prevention-readiness-andresponse/view
Schreyer, N. (2018, April 9). Domestic abusers: Dangerous for women and lethal for cops. USA Today
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/04/09/domestic-abusers-dangerous-women-andlethal-cops/479241002/
Underwood, C. (2005). Before he cheats [Song]. On Some hearts. Arista Records.
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/carrieunderwood/beforehecheats.html
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