Responding to Workplace Disruptions
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Mcann, Bernie
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Abstract
Workplace critical incidents and adjacent disasters, natural or human induced, have the potential to significantly disrupt work environments, with impacts on employees’ emotional health, mental and physical capabilities (Hoffman, 2001) and constitute a significant occupational and public health issue (Pearce, Bugeja, Wayland, et al, 2021). Assaults, robberies, sudden deaths, job losses and accidents have become more frequent and more commonly experienced occurrences of late. Well outside the typical workplace experience, often described as traumatic, these events may involve threats to life, as well as physical or emotional loss. Associated work performance-related sequalae include increases in absenteeism, presenteeism (attending work, but in a highly distracted state), lowered productivity, and reduced work engagement--which in aggregate, negatively impact organizational functioning. Workers in certain occupational categories including transportation, emergency services, law enforcement, financial/retail settings, and others are particularly vulnerable to exposure to these incidents (DeFraia, 2015; 2016; Skogstad, Skorstad, Lie, et al., 2013). 6