Don't cross the line

Aggression and violence cross the line

Aggression or violence means incidents in which a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work.

Most of us understand that extreme acts of violence are unacceptable. But not everyone realises there is a scale of aggression and violence. Some examples include:

• aggressive gestures or expressions such as eye rolling and sneering
• verbal abuse such as yelling, swearing and name calling
• intimidating physical behaviour such as standing in a worker's personal space or standing over them
• physical assault such as biting, spitting, scratching, pushing, shoving, tripping and grabbing
• extreme acts of violence and aggression such as hitting, punching, strangulation, kicking, personal threats, threats with weapons, sexual harassment and assault

No matter the situation, none of these are acceptable. Being exposed to these incidents repetitively can have a cumulative and significant ongoing effect on wellbeing.