Did you know that according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, workplace homicide is the leading cause of death among female workers in the United States and the second leading cause of death among men? 18,000 people a week are victimized by some sort of violence in the workplace in this country alone! Understanding how to protect yourself and your employees is indispensable knowledge.
I was privileged to receive an advanced copy of this important work to review before its official publication and found it well written, informative, and packed with essential information. Loren Christensen is one of my favorite authors. A retired police officer, Vietnam veteran, and 7th Dan black belt he really knows his stuff. For the record, I have a library of over 230 martial arts books. Many are in mint condition; stuff I've read only once, didn't finish, or never got around to. Christensen's are all dog-eared with sticky notes and scribbles in the margins, solid material I read over and over again. As always his advice is practical, useful, and easy to read.
In 'Surviving Workplace Violence' Christensen does a great job of making readers aware of the threat and presents solid strategies for keeping us safe. It is pretty short, a mere 105 pages, yet extremely valuable nevertheless. Its pithiness positions it as an excellent reference manual that just about anyone can read and understand in a few short hours. Clearly you cannot become an expert in such a short time yet the materials herein could literally save your life.
The vignettes in this book are startling and very informative. For example, it describes a situation where a 70-year-old salesman attacked and killed his former boss with a mason's hammer several months after she fired him for spitting on another employee. This clearly points out that just about anyone can be a potential hazard. Christensen describes warning signs (employee behaviors) that may indicate a higher likelihood of threat.
The author covers essential survival strategies for the employer (e.g., company policies/committees), as well as for the employee. The latter include awareness, stages of alertness (i.e., white, yellow, orange, red, black), hiding places, escape routes, incident response, combat breathing, mental imagery, and fighting back. He offers specific techniques that can be used against common weapons (e.g., knife, handgun, rifle) as well as descriptions of how to use common implements (e.g., stapler, pen, coffee cup) to help you fight back should you be forced to do so.
Lawrence Kane
Author of 'The Way of Kata' and 'Martial Arts Instruction'
