Essay on Domestic Violence: A Serious Problem for Employees and Organizations

Introduction

Undeniably, understanding the plight of the employee's private lives is a key factor under consideration for human resource managers in improving organization productivity. Notably, the serious and prevalent nature of domestic violence (DV) at the workplace needs the attention of organization stakeholders, including managers, supervisors, employers, and the office staff (McFerran, 2011). Domestic Violence (DV) affects not only employees, but all stakeholders mentioned above as well. A 2003 report by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimated that victims of close partner DV lost approximately 8 million working days each year - equivalent to approximately 32,000 full-time jobs at an economic cost of 5.8 billion (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). Furthermore, in 2005 a national telephone study conducted by Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence found 21% of adults working fulltime had experienced domestic violence with approximately 64% indicating it had had an adverse impact on their work (McFerran, 2011). Therefore, through the incorporation of various theoretical research on DV, the paper aims to analyze the impact of domestic violence on organization productivity.

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Impact of Domestic Violence at Workplace

It may seem strange for domestic violence, which occurs under a home setting to have an impact on the workplace. However, domestic violence often impacts the victims at workplaces causing such negative impacts, including workplace attacks, decreased performance, stagnant productivity, and an increase in healthcare costs (O'Leary-Kelly et al., 2008). DV is most prevalent at workplaces than most managers could imagine. Among women who have been victimized, approximately three quarters reveal that they were subjected to harassment while on their jobs. 56% noted that they were harassed due to lateness issues, which translated five times every month (O'Leary-Kelly et al., 2008). Almost half of the he surveyed victims experienced problems getting to work after being abused.

Influence of DV on Employee Productivity

According McFerran (2011) domestic violence can assume any form, including control isolation, intimidation, and financial abuse that can negatively impact on organization productivity. Moreover, according to O'Leary-Kelly et al. (2008, p. 6), domestic violence offenders target victims at their workplaces to increase their compromise and control economic independence. In my current organization, the abusers always make it hard for the victims (colleagues) to report to work on time or every miss reporting to work at all. The move delays achievement of daily goals and objectives of the employees and thus reducing productivity. The abusers often abuse the victims through withholding their transport fares, hiding their car keys, and physical injuries.

Achieving maximum output per worker is always a goal of every organization, and human resources management continuously monitors employee performance from time to time. However, workers that have been victimized domestically have often showed deteriorating trends on their performance, thus affecting organization productivity. Notably, the human resource department is only interested in employees that add value to the organization, and thus, the victimize of domestic violence stands at a greater risk of losing their jobs (O'Leary-Kelly et al., 2008). Moreover, multiple compelling evidence reveals that victims of domestic violence perform poorly and constantly do not meet their interdepartmental target since they face distractions, stressed, agitated, and always feel fatigued both mentally and physically (McFerran, 2011, p. 12). Notably, the most prevalent causes of DV experience at work include abusive phone calls, text messages, or emails that interfere with their concentration and thus impacting negatively of their productivity.

Moreover, the perpetrator can invade the victims working place, which is also prevalent, which may affect the victim's ability to get along with coworkers, thus reducing collective objective and communication gaps, thus reducing productivity. The more worrying consequence about domestic violence victims is their influence of the coworker.

Legislation and Domestic Violence

Due to the prevalent and widespread domestic violence. Multiple legislation has been implemented including Federal legislative laws that have been enacted to protect victims of such victimization. For instance, in 1994, the congress passed into law the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which recognized that, any form of domestic violence was a national crime and that the federal laws were to help the overburdened criminal justice and state against this war (McFerran, 2011). The laws enable the employer and human resource department to create compliance awareness through the incorporation of the legislation in the employees' working environment. Moreover, the employer will take the necessary measure to accommodate employees experiencing domestic violence and, thus, a necessary measure taken. The overall impact will be increased organization productivity due to increased concentration, less fatigue, both mental and physical, less distraction, and good working relation among employees.

Ethical Considerations

Domestic violence will no doubt have undesirable and unethical consequences on human resource management practices. The victimized employees may deviate from the code of conduct stipulated by the HRM practice. For instance, employees may claim report late, conspire with their colleagues to assist in accomplishing their objective or targets, increased absenteeism due to fictitious claims. All these ramifications against HR practices and hence can negatively impact organization productivity and create a lack of trust among the employer and the employee.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC. (2014). CDC Grand Rounds: Evidence-based injury prevention. MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 62(51-52), 1048.

McFerran, L. (2011). Safe at Home, Safe at Work? National Domestic Violence and the Workplace Survey (2011). Australian Domestic & Family Violence Clearinghouse, University of New South Wales.

O'Leary-Kelly, A., Lean, E., Reeves, C., & Randel, J. (2008). Coming into the light: Intimate partner violence and its effects at work. Academy of Management Perspectives, 22(2), 57-72.