Attitudinal Arrogance that Pushes Violence upon Everyone
Written by Robert D. Sollars
This is the 1st post in the series on workplace & school violence (WPV/SV) that I’ll be discussing over the next few weeks. Remember, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me and ask for clarification, at…Sollars Violence Prevention Training & Consulting, robert@sollarsviolencepreventin.com or for 24/7 service 480-251-5197
There are things that organizations do that actually contribute to an incident of WPV/SV. Does your organization commit any of these? I know for a fact that management/administrators will always say “No, we don’t’ antagonize our people with those! What’s wrong with you?” A caveat to add. All of the attitudes that I’m about to discuss below in the following posts can actually just be in the mind of the individual and if that’s the case…you have a bigger issue.
One term I coined more than a quarter century ago adds credence to this because it has been repeatedly used innumerable times since then, including major networks and personalities
Perception is Reality
Whatever someone perceives to be real is real.
- We’ve learned to recognize the signs and build security systems and facilities for prevention.
- We’ve written policies & procedures and given new benefits to employees to combat it.
- We’ve spent immeasurable dollars trying to protect against an incident. But we still fail in 2 critical ways.
We still ignore the warning signs and contribute to the problem with these attitudes. This isn’t a definitive list of attitudes that can lead an individual toward being violent or disruptive. Read these attitudes and learn them and from there create your own list
- Perceived disparate treatment
That word will pop up yet again, perceived. This is one of the big ones that individuals will see. Now while it is not always true, we do treat every person differently. And that’s not always a bad thing. In order to be a good supervisor/manager you need to know your people and know how to treat each one, according to their personality.
Some people are slower to learn, hard-headed, stubborn, or just plain lazy. In order to get the best out of each and everyone you have to deal effectively with everyone’s personality. While that may not be feasible, you have to know how to do it, and not just know how but actually do it.
The supervisor’s ‘pet’ will receive better treatment & more lenient application of rules. Do you necessarily want them to be a pet? No, but they have given everything they could have and more for the company.
That means that you will treat them differently in appreciation. If they make a mistake after years of faithful service, you’re more likely to overlook it. Other employees may not know all the facts and they only see that you’re treating someone better.
Should you start treating everyone the same and not recognize an employee for excellent service? Again, learning how to treat each person as an individual is necessary to be a successful manager. Will it make some people mad and upset at you? Of course, it will, but then again you have to learn how to handle that too.
As I stated above, these attitudes we are discussing can cause an employee to ‘go off’ at any time. Remember, it’s all about their perception of what’s happening. If they perceive that they are being lied to or useless platitudes are given to them, then in their mind, they are. And there is nothing you can say or do, at least immediately, to counteract it.
www.sollarsviolenceprevention.com Twitter: RobertSollars2 e-mail: robert@sollarsviolenceprevention.com
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It happens to Anyone…Any Time…Anywhere… For any Reason
I May Be Blind, but My Vision Is Crystal Clear
Copyright 2023 Robert D. Sollars
