Feed The Hand That Bites You:

There is no real way to tell why people do the things they do. Some of the people who commit acts of violence in the workplace are mentally unbalanced, and so are difficult to reason out. Others just never want to talk about it. Then there is always the 25% of the extreme offenders who kill themselves after taking the lives of others, and they'll never tell why they did it. However, regardless of how difficult it might be to pigeon hole everyone who perpetrates these acts, there are some overarching causes that certainly contribute to the phenomenon that is workplace violence. There is no real way to say to what degree any of these causes provoke violence, but it is undeniable that there is some connection here; just as it is undeniable that we as a society feed all of these elements which eventually bite back at us. These causes can be placed into one of two main categories:

The Glamorization of Violence in The Media, and

Problems in The Office.

There are, of course, other contributors to workplace violence, butt hey are more marginal players int he game; mere fingernails on The Hand of violence. Most causes of violence on the job fit into one of these two wide-sweeping categories.

The Hand is not always so easy to see. Often times it is enshrouded in the white-sequenced glove of mass entertainment. Increasingly as time goes on, more and more people are watching TV and movies, listening to music, and playing computer games than ever before. One only needs to look at the tremendous revenue these industries take in every year to realize that business is booming. Not too surprising is the fact that the demographic group that is indulging most in this industry, is that of teenaged, white males. This is the same group of people that will eventually make up the largest number of violent crime offenders in the workplace. And while it is by no means fair to blame work-related violence on the entertainment industry, it would be equally irresponsible to ignore them entirely.

But at the same time, The Hand is not always so elusive and enigmatic as all that. Often times, The Hand can be seen working its magic where you most expect it, right in the workplace. Yes, it's true, workplace violence, in all it's many forms, can most often be found in the offices we work in, the restaurants where we go to eat, and at the places that provide us with commercial services. But as always, when you see The Hand bounding about these various places of employment, leaving a trail of havoc in it's wake, rest assured that it is only so vital and energetic because it is fueled by a healthy diet of poor and/or authoritative management, and high worker stress. For The Hand can not work alone. it is simply a marionette whose dance is delicately orchestrated by the grandest puppet-master of all, SOCIETY.