The deceased: a police officer. A nurse in training.
The perpetrators: A prison guard. A surgeon.
These recent deaths were two of the approximately 5,000 on-the-job fatalities that occur each year, and both both were related to domestic violence. We mention the professions of the parties involved simply because domestic violence is often assumed to be an issue that doesn’t happen to “people like me” or that it primarily occurs in certain economic strata. These myths and stereotypes are part of the reason that it can be such a hidden problem.
In the case of Officer Kevin Ambrose, a 36-year veteran of the Springfield MA police department, he was shot and killed in the line of duty while protecting Charlene Miller and her baby from a former boyfriend. Miller was also shot but survived; Miller’s baby was unharmed, largely thanks to Officer Ambrose’s courage. The assailant, Shawn Bryan, a Rikers Island corrections officer, took his own life after the shooting.
Last week, Jacqueline Wisniewski was stalked and gunned down in Buffalo Hospital. Her murderer was a surgeon at the hospital, her coworker and a former boyfriend. The hospital and nearby schools were locked down for a few hours after the incident because it was unclear if this was a targeted incident or a shooting spree. Timothy Jorden, a trauma surgeon at the hospital and a former army Special Forces weapons expert, was identified as the assailant by witnesses and an all points bulletin was issued. He was found dead at his home two days later.
These tragic events are part of a phenomena called “domestic abuse” or “domestic violence” – misleading terms at best. The word “domestic” softens the edges of a brutal reality, and implies that it is something that happens behind closed doors, not our business. Yet it is indeed something we should be making our business and it is clearly not something that is confined to the home. Increasingly, the violence plays out or culminates in the workplace as assailants are stalked; it also takes the lives of working police officers and first responders.
According to a recent report in the Annals of Epidemiology, homicide is a leading cause of occupational death in U.S. women. There were 142 homicides among women at work resulting from intimate partner violence from 2003 to 2008. While the rate of homicides in the workplace has been trending down, the percentage of homicides against women at work increased in 2010 to 13 percent. Those at highest risk were in the health care, production, and office/administration professions. More than half the homicides occurred in parking lots and public buildings.
Types of workplace violence
Work violence generally falls in one of four buckets. It is helpful to segment them by type because the risk management and prevention measures can vary. The types of violence include:

• Criminal outsiders, which includes robberies, rapes, and random violence by strangers. This type of violence is common in organizations that handle money, financial transactions, and drugs. Risk mitigation can include staff training and addressing environmental issues such as better lighting, customer/worker barriers, lockboxes, alarms, and closed circuit videos.
• Organizational clients – this is violence committed by customers, patients, or other recipients of the business services. Healthcare workers in particular suffer many incidents at the hands of patients and family members. These might include rage-related incidents and incidents related to mental health issues or persons under the influence. Risk mitigation measureless include staff training and environmental controls.
• Lateral or worker on worker violence, which includes the so called “going postal” incidents and retribution for firings or other work-related issues. Although these incidents are the ones that make the headlines, they are the least common. Mitigation measures include better hiring practices, such as background and reference checks, zero tolerance policies that are enforced (including anti-bullying measures), manager and supervisor training, anger and stress management training for workers, availability of an EAP. Particular measures may need to be taken at points of high stress, such as layoffs or job loss.
• Domestic violence – this involves an employee involved with a spouse or significant other; it also includes coworkers who might be coincidentally caught up in events or first responders who are injured when trying to help the victims. This is the most difficult one to address since it stays “underground” until a serious point of escalation. The best way to deal with this potential is proactively as part of an organization’s health and wellness effort by publicizing the issue and publicizing the availability of resources to help. More and more progressive companies are addressing the issue. The Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to partnering with businesses to help reduce the costs and consequences of partner violence at work. From policies and programs to legal issues and legislation, CAEPV is a credible source for information, materials and advice. It’s an excellent source of best practices for corporate programs to prevent partner violence and offers concrete help for employers in starting a workplace program.

Why should employers care?
Employers are involved in domestic abuse whether they want to be or not. Futures Without Violence delineates Seven Reasons Employers Should Address Domestic Violence not the least of which are that it is a pervasive issue, it poses security and liability issues, and it results in significant lost time and lost productivity. A 2003 CDC study revealed that domestic violence accounts for nearly 8 million lost work days, the equivalent of more than 32,000 full-time jobs.
Plus, it is a morale issue. Studies show that 84% of surveyed employees believe that employers should get involved in the solution to the problem of domestic abuse. Yet there is a discrepancy, because at the time of this survey, just 13% of executives surveyed thought it was the company’s job to help solve the problem.
Workers’ comp is simply not an issue that can easily be siloed off from other aspects of a workers’ life. We certainly see that with health issues and so-called lifestyle issues that complicate worker’s comp claims. So, too, with domestic violence. While the employer may or may not be shielded from compensability in incidents of work violence, that sometimes simply opens the door to liability in the courts for other reasons: negligent hiring, lack of security, etc. While it’s important to address the safety issues directly related to the job, it makes economic sense to have health and safety be part of an overarching wellness program that addresses health-related issues that occur both on and off the job.