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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b>From:</b> Jobs <jobs-bounces@nfbnet.org> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Robert Sollars via Jobs<br><b>Sent:</b> Thursday, September 27, 2018 9:16 AM<br><b>To:</b> 'Jobs for the Blind' <jobs@nfbnet.org><br><b>Cc:</b> Robert Sollars <robertsollars2@gmail.com><br><b>Subject:</b> [Jobs] The workplace and domestic violence<o:p></o:p></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>If anyone wants to sign up to receive these twice weekly blogs…go to my website, <a href="http://www.robertdsollars.com">www.robertdsollars.com</a>, and sign-up. If you sign-up on the front page there is a download for those interested in security…but you don’t have to keep that if you don’t want to. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>October is designated for several different causes…one being Domestic Violence Awareness Month, hence this post. There are many statistics you may not be aware of about DV and I hope to help someone avoid this issue, especially at work…but without further ado…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>Nearly 50% of all fatal WPV incidents begin as a result of …<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>…Domestic violence (DV). That may seem preposterous to you, but it’s even worse than that. Think about the number of people you may personally know and innumerable stories of DV you hear about on a daily basis within your community. Whether those incidents are broadcast on the news as something else… who knows how they are categorized. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>No one can definitively know if those incidents you hear about will spill over into the workplace. In any event, it will have a chilling effect on your community. No matter the size of it, from a small community of professionals to the larger overall metropolitan area you live in. It affects everyone that is even remotely close to the victim.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>The actual statistic that I have is 48% of workplace violence (WPV) incidents begin as DV. Just because the number drops 2% doesn’t necessarily mean that you are less likely to die at work due to a WPV incident. Your chances are still the same…50/50. Not really such great odds, are they?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>In September in a period of less than one week, three incidents of WPV included DV as an excuse for the murders. Bakersfield, CA. 6 dead including the shooter. Masontown, PA. four wounded and 1 dead including the shooter. Middleton, WI. Four Dead, which included the female shooter, and three wounded. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>The reasonable excuses you may have for your chances being lower are that you don’t knowany DV victims or that you don’t work close enough to anyone who is a victim. In that you are 100% wrong…like those odds better? Here’s a short explanation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>Usually if a DV incident spills over into WPV it doesn’t usually stay contained to just the intended victim, especially if the intent of the perpetrator is murder. They, 99% of the time men in DV incidents, will take out their anger on whoever may be around the victim.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>In their eyes, the people who are in the way, legitimately or not, are trying to keep him from his property that he has to punish for some perceived slight or oversight. The key word in that sentence? Perceived. I have said it countless times. What they perceive to be their reality and no one will dissuade them from it. Delusional? You betcha, and there is nothing any of us can do about it before it explodes in a murderous rampage.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>You will notice that one term I used above is reprehensible to most people when describing a victim. Property of the perpetrator. But that is what the perpetrator believes. The victim is their property to do with as they see fit. Order to work for them, fetch them food, cigarettes, drugs, or booze, have sex when they want it, or do whatever. The major difference between these relationships and others similar? These relationships are violent to the extreme in causing the abuse and injury. From physical, mental, psychological, and emotional. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>A report from the Barrows Neurological Institute, Phoenix, AZ. in September 2017, stated that as many as 5% of all DV victims have suffered a concussion with many of those having permanent injury. Permanent injury? Mental loss, debilitating seizures, loss of coordination, and other examples of someone who has suffered severe head trauma, as if they have been in battle…which of course, they have.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>Then there is the phrase ‘those standing in the way, legitimately or not. To the perpetrator, anyone, literally anyone, who is in the way of stopping them from entering the facility is aiding and abetting their property from seeing them, security, receptionist, managers and etc. It doesn’t matter if it is procedure and policy or not, they are stopping them from seeing and murdering their property. They will not stop until they see the property…even if they have to murder dozens to get to it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>What can we do, as co-workers and friends, to help prevent DV and its arrival in our workplace to rein fire and brimstone upon innocent victims as well as the partner? Here is a short list of what YOU can do;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>1. if you see the victim begin shutting down emotionally after being open and having fun and friends…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>2. not stopping to chat or possibly holding their heads up any more<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>3. physical injuries on their bodies such as bruising, welts, and etc. and blaming themselves for being “so damned clumsy”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>4. report anything like this you may see to management, security, or police<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>The company, legal, & HR, will tell you that these are the only items you can do to prevent or notify, sometimes they are such cowards worrying about liability, albeit morally, ethically, and legally, they and you may be able to do a lot more. But it is obvious that something has to be done in this country to curb DV where ever it occurs. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>With DV resulting in more than 48% of all WPV incidents beginning this way it is imperative that we attempt to stop it from entering the workplace. How do we do that? Another short list;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>1. see someone being abused in a store, parking lot, or other place? Report it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>2. hears someone screaming for help while possibly in pain? Report it<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>3. hears slapping sounds after an argument, or worse gun shots? Report it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>4. even think someone is being abused in one way or another? Report it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>If you report possible abuse then you have fulfilled a part of your obligation as a human. Unfortunately, after that the bureaucracy takes over and you may never know what happens to the potential victim. You watch the news one night and see the television reporter telling you about a WPV incident started by a DV perpetrator. Was it the person you reported? You may never know unless the names and addresses are released and…many times they aren’t. Do you and your company want that on their conscience?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>