Everyone reacts differently

People react to a threatening situation differently. Some react immediately with stress reactions or shock, others after several hours or days. Many people experience fear, discomfort or horror after what has happened or could have happened. Others remain relatively unmoved.

The reaction may depend on how the victim perceived what happened, whether they were prepared or not, whether they were alone and whether they have experienced threats or violent incidents before. For many people, simply knowing about the risk of violence or threats means strong psychological pressure at work.

Give support to the affected person directly

Much suffering can be prevented if those who have been subjected to violence or threats are well cared for. It is often important for the person affected to quickly receive good psychological and social support from their manager and colleagues.

Those who have received good care and the opportunity to process their experiences are also much better prepared for similar events in the future.

Consider this:

• Never leave an affected colleague alone.
• Listen! You don't have to give advice or say wise things; the most important thing is that you are there.
• Avoid criticising or looking for who might have done something wrong.
• Don't send anyone back to an empty home. Ideally, make sure that a relative or friend is on hand for the affected person.

Offer professional support

A professional counsellor could be important. Not everyone affected will take up this offer immediately. As an employer, you may therefore need to come back with an offer of counselling support some time after the incident. The person affected can then often better assess their need for support.

Occupational health services can often offer crisis support. Employers can also sign agreements with insurance companies to gain access to this.

Inform everyone about what has happened

As an employer, you should gather the employees and provide concrete and factual information about what has happened and what you as an employer have done to support the affected person.

This is also an opportunity for you as an employer to follow up on the incident. You can also get a feel for how the incident has affected the employees and whether there is a need for measures to reduce anxiety and fear, such as group discussions in some form or temporary staff reinforcement. If you communicate what has happened properly, the risk of rumours spreading, unfounded concern and fear in the workplace is reduced.

Adapt the work if needed

Someone who is subjected to violence and threats may become ill afterwards. If this happens, you as an employer are obliged to adapt the work. Read more about work adaptation here:

Work adaptation - preventing or remedying sickness absence

Follow up on what happened

The employer is obliged to document incidents and events where violence or threats of violence have occurred. Employers, safety representatives and affected employees can together follow up on what has happened. The follow-up should include the causes of what happened, whether the procedures for situations of violence and threats worked or not and if they did not work, why.

Suggestions for what you can document:

Information about the affected person:

• gender
• age
• position or occupation
• education and training
• length of service.

Information about the incident:

• workplace
• suspected perpetrator
• when the incident occurred
• what kind of work was going on
• solitary work or not
• what led up to the incident
• sequence of events.

Information about the consequences of the incident:

• physical or mental injuries
• sick leave.

Measures you plan to take after the event:

• Do the procedures need to be changed?
• What measures need to be implemented to prevent a similar incident from happening again?

Report threats and violence

Here is information about when and how to report threats and violence:

Report work-related injuries, deaths and serious incidents to the Swedish Work Environment Authority