Causes of work-related violence

[ch 1: pages 8-9]

Guidance produced by the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives (SCHWL), the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA) and the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) (see page 44) sets out that while violence and/or aggression are rarely justifiable, there can be many reasons that provoke people to be offensive, threatening, rude or abusive. It provides the following examples:

• unrealistic expectations or inaccurate perceptions of the service;

• lack of information;

• believing that only aggression guarantees satisfaction;

• believing that the customer is always right;

• not valuing the person providing the service;

• anger and resentment not necessarily associated with the organisation;

• tiredness or lack of sleep;

• a medical condition; and

• personal matters.