Domestic Violence is Company Business

When a local batterer lunged across a receptionist’s desk to attack his wife, three female co-workers came to her rescue and held the attacker until police arrived. Nobody was seriously injured, but the company likely didn’t realize that it’s also a victim.

That particular incident may not have cost the firm much — a few unproductive business hours by the staff — but the impact domestic abuse does have on business has largely been underestimated until now.

Estimates of lost work days attributed to domestic violence range from 2.8 million to 7 million days annually.

Amy Farmer, an economics professor at the University of Arkansas’ Sam M. Walton College of Business, recently analyzed domestic violence studies to determine the impact on American business. Her next step is to work directly with businesses to confirm her data and further investigate the issue. Farmer said the information could then be used to develop programs to help employers deal with the social ill and reduce its cost to business.

Using the lowest figure from the limited data collected on the cost of domestic violence, Farmer estimates there’s a annual financial loss of at least $192 million. Then there’s also $975 million in lost wages for the victims. (See chart, page 13.)

But those numbers don’t include the price victims often pay by being stuck in lower-paying jobs or unable to advance because of attendance and performance problems that can be attributed to the abuse, Farmer said. It also doesn’t include the company costs in turnover and low productivity.

A 1998 Commonwealth Fund survey found that 37 percent of women who experienced domestic violence admit that the abuse had an impact on their work performance. Tardiness, missed work, retaining a job and missed promotions were listed as costly career impacts of abuse.

“Businesses probably don’t even know how much it’s affecting them,” Farmer said. “Clearly, the real costs are much bigger than what we have here.”

She’s convinced the data available is actually underestimated. Women typically don’t want their boss to know that they’re suffering from abuse, so Farmer isn’t sure how open abused women are in such surveys.

Surprisingly, Farmer’s study found that most victims of domestic violence are working women, although most work at low-paying jobs.

Abusers often want their wives to work and bring money into the home, Farmer said. And abused women often work in an effort to change their situation, she added.

“They’re trying to gain power,” she said.

Project Ruth

Work is the place that Carmen Burasco felt appreciated when she was in an abusive relationship.

“It was up to me to hold on to my job,” said Burasco, who is now employee health services and wellness administrator at McKee Foods in Gentry. “It was the only place I felt I could do right.”

Burasco helps employees at McKee Foods deal with domestic violence issues and helps supervisors recognize the signs through Project Ruth. The program is named for a McKee Foods employee who was killed by domestic violence.

Burasco was working elsewhere when she was going through the difficulty, but support from her supervisor helped her get out of the situation, and now she’s glad to be a part of Project Ruth.

The program offers abuse victims the same type of assistance Burasco said she received from her employer — changes in work schedule, assistance making shelter arrangements and secure locations to meet with authorities.

The key to helping, she said, is to let the employee know assistance is available and to let her make the effort to take advantage of that help. Abuse victims can’t be forced into taking action, Burasco said.

Judi Selle, executive director of the Project for Victims of Family Violence in Fayetteville, agrees that business is affected now more than ever by violence in the home because more women are in the work force.

One in 10 women experience “a serious episode of domestic violence” each year, Selle said.

National statistics show that 70 to 75 percent of all police calls are related in some way to domestic violence, Selle said. The Washington County prosecuting attorney’s office handled nearly 500 cases of domestic violence in the last nine months, she added.

Assistance Programs

Selle volunteers to work with area businesses to develop employee assistance programs regarding domestic violence and policies for handling domestic violence attacks on the job. Not only can the employer help its employees who are victims, it also can provide a more secure workplace for all of its employees, Selle said.

The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that 13,000 acts of violence against women by husbands or boyfriends are committed in the workplace each year.

“Abusers know that they go to work at 8 o’clock and leave at 5 o’clock,” Burasco said. “It’s definitely something employers should be aware of because it can walk in your door.”

Through Project Ruth, McKee Foods recently distributed Day Planner dividers to its supervisors with quick tips on what to do if an abuser shows up at work and tips on recognizing abuse.

The New York City Victim Services Agency found during a yearlong study that 75 percent of battered women were harassed by their abusive partners in person or by telephone while at work.

A study conducted by the U.S. Labor Department’s Women’s Bureau, found that women are more likely to be murdered at work than die of a work-related injury. More women are actually killed at work during a robbery or other crime, but the study found that 17 percent of the alleged attackers were current or former husbands or boyfriends.

“It has an effect on productivity,” said Larry Goodall, human resources manager for Superior Industries in Fayetteville. “They’re not necessarily going to come to work or be at their best performance if they’re going through that.”

The wheel-manufacturing company works to assist employees in domestic violence situations. Mainly, the company helps get the victim assistance that is already available in the community.

This assistance may be getting the victim moved into a shelter, helping her get some counseling or simply providing a secure place to discuss the problem with the police, Goodall said.

Superior also will provide secure priority parking for potential victims.

“We recognize that we’re not the professionals and we’ve got to get them to talk to the right people,” Goodall said.

Burasco has helped at least one McKee employee she suspected might be an abuser to get counseling through the employee assistance program. The employee was angry with his wife, and “just the way he talked” led her to believe he might be abusive, she said.

A 1994 survey of Fortune 1000 companies conducted by Liz Claiborne Inc. found that four out of 10 corporate leaders were personally aware of employees in their companies who have been affected by domestic violence. About half of them recognized it affected productivity and two-thirds agreed the company would benefit financially by addressing the issue among employees.

“One of the biggest obstacles to helping an abused woman is to identify her,” Amy Farmer said. “Women are out there working, so women in these kinds of situations are out there.”