When the work force shrinks, so does safety
The blues that accompany an organizational reduction in force can lead to safety hazards. Last May, two much-read association publications ran feature stories on the suffering that can result from downsizing. {open_quotes}Casualties of downsizing{close_quotes} were lamented in Robert W. Lucky`s IEEE Spectrum column. {open_quotes}Downsizing: a new form of abandonment{close_quotes} moaned the cover of the APA Monitor, the American Psychological Association`s monthly. For a number of reasons, when employees suffer, the workplace becomes less safe. Safety means more than not stepping into maintenance holes. Persons who work for a government or nonprofit entity are twice as likely to be threatened on the job as are employees of a for-profit business. Government workers constituted 18 percent of the work force but they accounted for 30 percent of homicide victims. Non-fatal assaults in the workplace are most commonly perpetrated by a fellow employee, not a stranger or someone known from outside work. There are other morale-related challenges to safety besides a disgruntled, imbalanced employee bringing a semiautomatic weapon to work. Some of these safety issues are discussed.
- OSTI ID:
- 482396
- Journal Information:
- Public Power, Vol. 54, Issue 5; Other Information: PBD: Sep-Oct 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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