Workplace violence and increasing attacks on retail workers
Over the course of the past several months, there has been a trend of workplace violence directed toward the nation's retail workers.
The Institute of Customer Service now reports that 44% of frontline retail workers have experienced hostility from customers in the past six months. This figure represents an increase from 35% in February.2022.
Workplace violence in its most egregious form, homicide, has visited the nation's grocery stores in the past year in a big way. No less than four high-profile shootings have occurred in stores in Colorado, Tennessee, Florida and most recently in Buffalo, New York,
Whether the cause of these attacks has to do with the stress the pandemic has caused shoppers, the increased dramatic costs of everything from food to gasoline, or some other factor: the problem of workplace violence in the retail sector appears to not be going away anytime soon.
The WVPI urges every business to have a written workplace violence prevention policy and procedure in place, and to communicate these standards frequently to all employees.
Sources:
https://theconversation.com/more-mass-shootings-are-happening-at-grocery-stores-13-of-shooters-are-motivated-by-racial-hatred-criminologists-find-183098