A man comes into your workplace. He is agitated and making threats. You don’t know if he is armed.

Do you know what to do? Do you have a plan? Does your employer have a proceedure in place?

The answer for many companies in the Monadnock region, said Terry Choate, co-owner of Blue U Defense of Jaffrey, is no.

Blue U Defense is a company that works with private corporations, individuals and schools to help develop policies and train employees in how to react in workplace violence situations – whether it be an active shooter situation or a disgruntled customer or employee. Having started the business over two years ago, Choate, along with his business partner Joe Hileman, have now grown to over 100 clients, with no signs of slowing down.

“There has always been a market for this,” said Choate. “We don’t have to do any marketing at all. All our business is by word-of-mouth. But even now, it can be hard to get people to see how important this kind of training is.”

Lou Chatel, the president of Awareness and Safety Response Training, a New Ipswich-based company that provides similar violence response training, agreed, saying that attitude mostly comes mostly from an “It can’t happen here” mentality. When people think of workplace violence, it’s often the high-profile incidents that jump to mind, said Chatel – active shooter situations.

“They’re very popular in the press, but incidents like slapping, punching, kicking or someone throwing something are very common in the workplace,” said Chatel. “The potential for violence is everywhere.”
How can it be prevented?
The number one way to keep yourself safe, advised both Choate and Chatel, is to be aware of your surroundings. That applies not only to the workplace, but in everyday life.

“I don’t want people to be paranoid. I just want them to be aware,” said Chatel. “There are usually red flags, and sometimes, people miss them.”

Along with that awareness is the need for a plan. One of the services that Blue U and AaSRT provide is assisting companies with writing and training their employees with a specific policy for workplace violence situations. But each individual should also be aware of basic things, like identifying alternate exit routes for their workplace or having a saferoom they can retreat to.

In a recent seminar conducted by Blue U Defense with a Massachusetts company, Choate and Hileman put the emphasis on making fast, competant decisions in potentially dangerous situations. In an emergency situation, the two explained, your brain goes into survival mode and will search for similar situations that you’ve survived before. If you can visualize an incident, and plan how you will escape during calm moments, your brain will be more able to access that information during a real emergency. Mental preparedness is key, they say.

For more information on AaSRT, contact Chatel at 660-1365 or visit www.aasrt.com. For more information on Blue U, visit www.blue-u.com or call 759-7803.

Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or at asaari@ledgertranscript.com.