Workplace hazard: violence and aggression at work

Violence and aggression are among the most serious harms a workplace can face. They cause direct psychological harm to those who experience them, and when they are poorly managed or dismissed, they damage the broader culture of safety and trust that a healthy workplace depends on.

What counts as workplace violence and aggression?

Workplace violence and aggression refers to any incident where a worker is abused, threatened, or physically harmed in circumstances related to their work. This includes physical violence such as hitting, pushing, or assault, verbal abuse including yelling, swearing, and intimidation, threatening actions whether in person, over the phone, or in writing, and psychological abuse including humiliation, coercion, and sustained hostile conduct.

It can come from multiple sources. Clients, customers, or members of the public are a significant source of violence and aggression in many industries. But colleagues, managers, and others within the workplace can also be the source, and this form is often harder to raise and harder to address.

Who is most at risk?

Violence and aggression can occur in any workplace, but some roles and industries carry higher inherent risk. These include healthcare and emergency services workers who regularly interact with people in distress, retail and hospitality workers who deal with the public in high-pressure environments, social services and community workers who work with people experiencing significant difficulty, and workers who handle cash, work alone, or work late at night.

The risk is not uniform within industries either. Factors including poor staffing levels, high workloads, and inadequate training can all increase the likelihood of violent or aggressive incidents.

How violence and aggression cause harm

The psychological effects of workplace violence and aggression can be significant and long-lasting. A single serious incident can cause acute distress, sleep disruption, difficulty returning to work, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Repeated lower-level aggression, such as ongoing verbal abuse from clients or hostile actions from a colleague, can be just as damaging over time, and is often less likely to be formally reported or taken seriously.

There is also a broader cultural harm. When violence and aggression are dismissed, downplayed, or met with inadequate responses, workers draw conclusions about whether they are safe, whether their wellbeing matters, and whether raising concerns is worth the effort.

When aggression becomes accepted

In some industries, a degree of aggression from clients or customers is treated as an expected part of the job. Workers are told to manage it, absorb it, and move on. This approach causes harm in two ways.

It places an unfair burden on individual workers to cope with conditions that should be addressed at a systemic level. And it creates a culture where workers do not report incidents, because they have learned that reporting leads nowhere.

Neither outcome is acceptable. Employers have a responsibility to manage the risk of violence and aggression, not simply to expect workers to tolerate it.

What employers can do

Managing the risk of violence and aggression requires both prevention and response. Practical steps include:

Identifying roles and environments where the risk is elevated and assessing that risk formally. Putting in place controls to reduce exposure, including physical design, staffing levels, and clear protocols for managing difficult situations. Providing training so workers know how to identify warning signs, de-escalate situations, and access support when an incident occurs. Ensuring incidents are reported, recorded, and followed up consistently. Taking all reports seriously, including lower-level verbal abuse, rather than treating only serious incidents as worthy of a response. Checking in with workers after incidents and ensuring access to support.

Why reporting matters

Workers who experience violence or aggression often do not report it. They may feel it is just part of the job, worry about how it will be received, or doubt that anything will change. Anonymous reporting channels help here, because they lower the barrier to raising concerns and give employers visibility of patterns that would otherwise go undetected.

An employer who knows about incidents can act on them. An employer who does not know cannot.

Why it matters

No one should be harmed at work. Violence and aggression are not acceptable conditions of employment, regardless of industry or role. Employers who take this seriously create safer workplaces. Those who do not create conditions where harm compounds quietly until it becomes impossible to ignore.