Posts
I note with concern that Mr. Whitmore is still using the raw numbers to make his case...
"Every day, on average, two people are killed and 87 injured as a result of a workplace violence incident, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics."
In the mean time BLS 2010 preliminary workplace injury and fatality statistics read as follows...
There were 808 deaths due to "assaults and violent acts" (homicides, suicides, and animal attacks) at work in 2010.
http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cftb0250.pdf
506 work-related homicides in 2010 (1.38 per day, on average).
http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cftb0255.pdf
258 workplace suicides in 2010.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.nr0.htm
Workplace homicides 2010 were at their lowest since 1992.
http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfch0009.pdf
Workplace suicides in 2010 were at their third highest since 1992 (2009 and 2008 were first and second highest, respectively).
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.nr0.htm
The very thorough NCCI 2012 report Violence in the Workplace provides more details...
69% of workplace homicides are committed during robberies.
https://www.ncci.com/documents/Workplace_Research.pdf
<2% of all workplace injuries are the result of assault.
https://www.ncci.com/documents/Workplace_Research.pdf
Perhaps Mr. Whitmore is using the raw numbers to shock consumers into buying his book so they have a chance to absorb his more positive and proactive leadership message. Perhaps he is concerned that readers would not be so strongly motivated if they knew that killings perpetrated by customers, coworkers, or intimate partners represented 157 deaths in 2010 (3% of all workplace fatalities).
"Every 2.3 days one person is killed in what most people think of as a workplace violence incident." is not nearly so catchy a tagline as one taken from the aggregated statistics (which include robbery-homicides and workplace suicides).
Once Mr. Whitmore hooks his reader does he break down the numbers into the multifaceted problems they represent? Does he address workplace suicide, which accounts for about a third of all workplace deaths due to assaults and violent acts? Does Mr. Whitmore address the 61% of workplace injuries caused by healthcare patients and residents of healthcare facilities? I'll have to buy Potential: Workplace Violence Prevention and Your Organizational Success and let you know.
Consider it added to my 2012 reading list...
UPDATE: On order 23 February 2012.
REUPDATE: In the mail 25 February 2012.
UPDATE: Arrived 27 February 2012. Snappy service; can't tell it was printed on demand.
REUPDATE: Submitted my review of the book to Security Management magazine for their consideration 4 March 2012.
LATEST UPDATE: Security Management had already assigned Whitmore's book to a reader - who has several months to complete it (which means you all won't see it there until later this summer sometime). Barry Nixon asked if he could publish it in the April issue of The Workplace Violence Prevention eReport, and so he shall.
