Blog Post: We Just Don’t Get Involved

Linda King of Fix the Hurt  told me about a conversation she had with a corporate executive.  She had approached him about the affects of domestic violence on the organization as a whole.  This man’s response to her was “Yes, I realize that employees are affected and it affects productivity.  But, employees also over spend and that also affects productivity; and that’s a personal matter and we just don’t get involved”.

“What a shame”, she thought.  And so do I.  Ironically, this man was from a medical facility.  You’d hope that he was also seeing the affects of domestic violence on his patients.  In fact, forty-four percent of women murdered by their intimate partner had visited an emergency department within two years of the homicide, 93% of whom had at least one injury visit 1

Sometimes a person gets so far removed from what’s going on, right under their noses, they just can’t see it at all.  It’s not unlike the executive that I spoke to.  He was from an organization of 58,000 employees worldwide and stated, “We don’t have that in our organization.  I never hear about it.”   Wow.  That says far more about what he’s not hearing than the reality of what’s going on.  With 58,000 employees it’s statistically impossible not to be going on.  Even with 5,800.  Or 58, for that matter.

Heck, maybe he doesn’t believe that Steve Nash became the first NBA payer to shoot more than 50 percent from the floor, 90 percent from the line and 40 percent from 3-point range for three consecutive seasons 2 because he didn’t see every game either.

Businesses that implement domestic violence strategies are seeing successes every day.  I hear feedback from groups I work with on people who have come forward for help, or they know have self-referred to counseling after I’ve worked with them.  They have had noticeable changes in their organizational culture and decreased occurrences at the workplace and productivity is improved.   Employers can make a positive difference.

In the February 2009 Research Works report “Employee Personal Financial Stress and How Employers Can Help” the researchers found that employees want their employers to help.  When they received financial education they found it an effective way to learn to decrease spending and get out of debt. Seventy-four percent had reduced stress, 67percent had improved health and well-being, 39 percent had less work absenteeism, and 36 percent had improved work productivity. 3

So yes, overspending is a personal matter; domestic violence is a personal matter.  You can be the employer, or even the co-worker, who removes the barrier and takes action. What’s it worth to your organization to get involved?  In the end – it’s invaluable.

1 Crandall et al. 2004, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control

2 Boivin, Arizona Republic 8/20/09

3 Attridge, M. (2002, June). Adapted from Research Works