Dangerous Behaviour of Employees in the Workplace and Its Consequences

Introduction

The behaviour of people in the workplace directly affects the performance of an organization. While the organization’s goal as a business entity is to remain profitable, this has to be balanced with the need to uphold the standards of work and employees’ welfare. Workplace standards and employees welfare, that is the work culture, is an essential determinant of an employee’s behaviour (Juneja, n.d.) This essay highlights some dangerous employee behaviour in the workplace and the associated consequences.

Dangerous Behaviour

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary (n.d.) defines behaviour as the way in which someone conducts themselves and dangerous as that with the ability to inflict injury or harm. Dangerous behaviour thus entails actions that have the potential to cause harm or injury. The harm or injury can be directed to an individual or property. A direct impact would be on the person with the dangerous behaviour; colleague or colleagues undertaking an activity in which the person with the dangerous behaviour is involved in; and objects in the immediate surrounding where these workers are involved in. People and property may be indirectly impacted by dangerous behaviour for example if they are part of a chain in a production line in which a dangerous behaviour has been effected.

Dangerous Behavior in the Office

Dangerous behaviour forms part of employee deviance. Robinson and Bennett (1995) defines employee deviance as the voluntary behaviour by an employee which goes against significant organizational norms thereby becoming a threat to the organization, its members or both. It is worth noting that while deviant behaviours covers a broad subject – from minor inconsequential behaviours to the behaviours with adverse consequences, dangerous behaviour only focuses on those that will result in harm or injury.

Some of the typical dangerous behaviour within an office setting are:

• Harassment and bullying
• Aggression and violence
• Sexual Harassment and assault
• Theft, fraud and vandalism
• Harassment and Bullying

GOV.UK (n.d.) describes bullying and harassment as that behaviour which makes an individual to feel intimidated or offended. Such behaviours would include spreading malicious rumours, unfair treatment of an employee, regularly undermining someone and denying training or promotion opportunities to an individual. The bullied individual may experience a range of effects including shock, anger, feelings of frustration with or without helplessness, vulnerability, reduced confidence, inability to sleep, loss of appetite, stomach pains, headaches, panic or anxiety especially about going to work, lack of concentration, and low morale and productivity. A workplace affected by bullying will see increase in absenteeism, turnover, stress, employee associated costs (such as employee assistance programs, recruitments, training), and risk for accidents and incidents. The organization will surfer reduction in employee productivity, motivation and employee morale. The effect also comes as a blow to the organization’s image with reduced customer confidence, and poor customer service (Government of Canada, 2019).

Aggression and Violence

Violence in the workplace entails any form of aggression that is intended to harm, harass, or abuse others (Phillips, 2016). Phillips notes that nearly 27% of American workers report experiences of abusive conduct at work while 21% have witnessed aggressive behaviour or violence at work. Employees who have experienced violence or aggression will show signs like experiencing emotional difficulties, increased absenteeism and they may also express contempt towards fellow workers. The resulting effects are employees missing work, increased healthcare expenses, and costs of legal claims.

Sexual Harassment and Assault

The Employment Act (2007) defines a worker to be sexually harassed if the employer or its representative or a co-worker makes direct or indirect requests for any form of sexual activity with: the promise of preferential treatment at workplace; or threats of detrimental treatment; or threats on the present or future employment status of the worker. This includes items and actions that are sexual in nature like language whether written or spoken, visual material, and physical behaviours. Studies estimate that the number of women who experience sexual harassment range from a quarter to eight in ten women (Feldblum and Lipnic, 2016). Women who have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace have physical and mental health problems, career interruptions, lower earnings and face impediment in career progression (Shaw et al, 2018).

Theft, Fraud and Vandalism

Theft or to steal means to take possession of another person’s property either secretly or by force. Prevent Violence at Work (n.d.) describes fraud as the use of deception by employees to secure gains that may otherwise not have been obtained. Vandalism on the other hand can be described as the wanton destruction of property by employees, the property having been made available to them for their. Victims of theft, fraud and vandalism experience economic distress when they lose money or when they have to spend money to replace property. Frequent victims may experience psychological harassment resulting in stress with physiological and psychological problems like hypertension and nervousness. Workers may feel insecure and threatened after witnessing theft or vandalism in their organization (Prevent Violence at Work, n.d.). The organization where fraud has taken place faces lawsuits, higher insurance premiums, extra expenses of replacing property, loss of business and the organization’s image and integrity may be affected.

Conclusion

It has been shown that dangerous behaviour of employees in the workplace has negative consequences. Both the employer and the employees suffers directly and indirectly. The employee is harmed physically with effects of stress. The employee may also be subjected psychological effects (like nervousness, exhaustion, emotional instability and insomnia) and physiological effects (like hypertension, headaches and ulcers). Under such circumstances of dangerous behaviour, the work environment becomes unsafe and insecure for the employees. In turn, the employer has to deal with employee absenteeism, low productivity, lost man-hours and downtime, and high employee turnovers. The employer incurs extra expenses associated with litigation, insurance premiums, employee improvement programmes, security charges, employee hiring among others. In short the employer and the employees