Domestic Violence Can Lead to Workplace Active Shooters?
November 28, 2016
In a recent client assessment for active shooter response preparedness, I asked the question whether any act of lethal violence had ever occurred at the facility. The response was no, but a case of spousal abuse had taken place in the parking lot across the street – their employee parking lot!

It used to be that companies did not want to get involved with domestic abuse experienced by one of their employees. There was a ‘check your personal problems at the door’ attitude. That demeanor is now flat out dangerous. The violent spouse or partner in a fit of rage, seeking the victim at their workplace, does not always confine the violence to just the victim. The company or organization has a moral and legal responsibility to be aware of such abusive activity and foresee that it could enter the workplace and become everyone’s problem. The courts will certainly look at it that way, should an incident occur in the workplace and someone else is hurt.
If the victim’s co-workers are aware of the abuse, then the organization needs to be aware of it too. Therefore, your policy needs to make all of your employees aware of their responsibility to report such a situation for a discrete investigation. Besides doing the right thing to help the victim employee, your knowledge of the abuse, and subsequent actions taken to protect that individual and the work environment will become part of your defense. It might even prevent a violent incident. Options could include:
- Counseling or other Employee Assistance Program (EAP) intervention
- Relocating the affected employee within the office to a new workspace
- Changing their schedule to avoid nighttime parking
- Transferring them to another facility
Make some accommodations that will either help with the problem or reduce the likelihood that the problem will manifest itself at work in a violent manner. OSHA’s general duty clause maintains the expectation that the workplace is made safe from foreseeable dangers and this is one of them.