Why Workplace Violence Prevention Planning Matters With Agape Garcia
Explore how employers navigate the impact of domestic violence on the workplace in this enlightening episode featuring Post Traumatic Growth Strategian, Agape Garcia. Dive into the details of California's new mandate, compelling businesses to integrate workplace violence prevention planning into their policies. The discussion extends to various approaches businesses can adopt in crafting effective plans, emphasizing the crucial aspect of compliance and shedding light on the repercussions of non-compliance. Delve deeper into the challenging realm of domestic violence within the workplace, uncovering the hurdles employers confront and the pivotal role of support and training for those grappling with this issue. Brimming with insightful perspectives, this episode is an invaluable resource. Don't miss out on this compelling conversation—tune in today to stay informed!
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Why Workplace Violence Prevention Planning Matters With Agape Garcia
This episode is one that I wish we didn't have to talk about, honestly. My guest is Agape Garcia and her personal story. We don't get too much into it. We've talked before. I know that she had a harrowing experience of her own with domestic violence, but it escalated with attempted murder when she had an 8-year-old daughter and was 8 months pregnant. She had to escape into a town where she didn't know anybody and had no job. It is about as desperate a situation as you can imagine. She is very qualified to understand the plight of people no matter what stage of abuse to violence they might be in.
We talk a lot about the responsibilities of the employer and in response specifically to my legislation in California, but it's something that isn't restricted to California as it relates to a phenomenon. I'm sure there are different laws in different states, but it's something everybody needs to be aware of. It’s not a happy topic at all, but it's one that's very important. It's more prevalent than I knew. I learned from her in this discussion, and hopefully, you will too. Help me welcome Agape Garcia to the show.
What would you say would be the person that would very strongly benefit from contacting you and taking me of the guidance that you can provide?
CA SB553: Workplace Violence Prevention Plan
Thank you for asking that question. Anybody in the State of California that is not in the healthcare industry or law enforcement industry, basically Cal 553 or SB 553, which was signed into law on September 30, 2023, is now mandating that businesses across the state include workplace violence, prevention and planning in their policies. Basically, those two exceptions, healthcare and law enforcement, that's simple. It gets a little murky when we're talking about small businesses. If you are a small business, but you are available to the public, it doesn't matter how many employees you have. You can have two employees, somebody at the register and somebody cooking in the bag because you are open to the public, then you need to comply. July 1, 2024, is the deadline. We're like in a serious crunch.
My first question is, do all the people who own businesses at that level and above know it? Do they know this?
That's a very good question because I believe that smaller companies that are run by a skeleton crew wear multiple hats. It's very hard to stay on top of everything. If you're being notified or if you are on listservs where the information is coming to you, or if you have somebody who's constantly scouting the updates legislatively for small businesses, then it's a yes or no. It's a hit or miss if everybody knows.
I know that there's a lot of different conversations being had and things being put out there on the internet. I personally have spent well over 250 hours already gathering a lot of information from the EEOC, from the National OSHA down to the State of California laws and other legislative bills that are incorporated under this mandate. I've learned what the fines are. I've learned how to structure the policy, what the logs are, retention, requirements, and everything. I'm here to help small to large businesses be compliant by the deadline.
What are the penalties and the compliance?
The penalties start at $18,000. That is where it's starting. For a small business, that can be pretty steep. For a larger business, they might be willing to pay the fine because they don't have the time. That's where I come in. My services are cheaper than the fines. It's a win-win across the board. I'm preventing the fines and you're audit-ready.
There’s an intention behind this mandate. They're going to move the needle to some degree. We're not erasing the problem completely, but we want to address it as best we can. What are the things that the business owners or anybody in a leadership position, whether they're in California or not, need to be aware of to do what they can responsibly as it relates to the spirit behind the mandate?
We're not erasing the problem but we want to address it as best we can.
Responsibly behind the mandate. That's very interesting. Choice of words to put in the same sentence. Be responsible and meet the mandate.
I guess part of the way I phrased it is I probably don't understand the mandate very well.
The mandate is to have that plan in place by July. When I say that plan, there are three different ways you could go about the plan. You could either create a plan that's independent of all other plans that you have. That goes by what size your company is and how it operates, then you have the option of incorporating the requirements and putting it into an already national mandate, which is called the Workplace Injury and Illness Prevention Program.
You can put it in there or you can customize it to how you want based on your current policies and your current third-party vendors if it's security or HNS or something to that nature. If you want to incorporate some of your benefits and your culture into it. Each and every company is very different. Each culture is different. Each list of benefits that they offer is different. We can range from anything. We could have the do-it-for-you approach where you're compliance and audit-ready, or we can incorporate it into what you already have or we do a full-on assessment and create a whole program because access control in my book is pretty much the first thing we look at
Let's take the very most basic, the example you shared about 1 person up front, 1 person in the back, 2-person operation, but people are coming in the door they must comply. What's the basic thing that an operation like that needs to do to be in compliance?
They have the required logs in place so that if something does happen, they are trained and aware of what the process is to respond or follow up.
I was going to clarify about the logs and what that looked like. I’m trying to get an idea of the scope of work and how much effort and time it takes to be compliant. That's what I'm trying to drive to.
A lot of that don't forget, be is a prevention plan. You need to have things upfront to prevent and mitigate to the best of your ability then have these responding mechanisms and processes in place to close it out. We'll skip the prevention pieces because that's something that we work with each individual organization and/or leadership to decide how they want to do that.
It is mandatory that you report any injury that takes place that's on the National OSHA Form 300 and 301. The other thing is that when you are doing an investigation, all parties that you are questioning and gathering information from need to be anonymous. However, you go about identifying the individual needs to be in such a way that if the victim or perpetrator finds this log, they will not be able to tell who said what.
How would it be possible in a 2 or 3-person operation?
That's something that you need to figure out, and that would be where we talk behind closed doors. Those consulting opportunities are at play here. I’ll give you an example, something to that nature where if it's a two-man operation, more than likely it will be a customer, a client, or a random act of someone coming in and doing something. There'd be witnesses involved. That's a way where an example of how you would keep people anonymous.
This gets complicated because let's say a mom comes in with three kids and they're all being bratty, but she's focused on one and she smacks the one right across the face and leaves a big mark. Is that something that I have to act on or do I mind my own business?
It's all up to the individual. If you feel like that's child abuse and you feel like you need to make the phone call and contact somebody, then that is something that is at your sole discretion.
Let's say I decided not to, would I have a liability there?
Not that I'm aware of. That is not a workplace type of injury that's happening. If the parent is there, nobody's attacking, that's a parent and a child. If you're asking for my personal opinion, I would probably stay out of it unless I'm calling the police to come and respond in real-time at that moment.
One hit might not be enough, but at some point, it might be a serious enough beating where you have to intervene.
Sole discretion. If you're seeing something that's not right, you do what you feel is best to do.
If you're seeing something that's not right, do what you feel is best to do.
What I'm getting from the overall picture here is that there's an awareness piece here. We're trying to codify the awareness and make sure that it's harder to get away with domestic violence in the world. I mean, is that the end here that we're trying to do? If you give your spouse a black eye, there's a good chance that someone's going to notice and report it. I'm trying to get an idea of the overall picture here.
Understanding Domestic Violence
That's a phenomenal way of putting it. Let me explain. Domestic violence has been a problem forever for centuries. Those who have been through it clearly know exactly what I'm talking about. We have been fighting for rights, programs, and many different things in order to help eliminate, prevent, mitigate, and shut it down. It is ingrained in our society to this day, yet we are still ashamed to talk about it. It's a very sensitive topic statistics have shown that for decades, it's been 1 out of 3 women and 1 out of 4 men.
That's hard to believe.
I'm telling you, every ten minutes, somebody is being physically abused. The numbers are phenomenal. We're in the billions of dollars on how much work is missed and how much productivity is lost based on people missing days from work because of domestic violence. I can talk for so long about this, but I will share with you that as a survivor of domestic violence myself, double attempted homicide, eight months pregnant, I have gone to work as a victim. I felt like work was the only place where there were resources where I felt safe and where I was away from my situation. It was a place where I felt free to be me. Was that the right thing to do at that time? I didn't have anything else. Did I tell anybody? Did I share that with anybody? No. Was I supposed to?
There weren't these things in place back then. It was still a very hush-hush thing don't bring your drama to work type of ordeal. I'm going to fast forward, and then as a manager with employees, and who are dealing with domestic violence because of my situation, because of who I became over time and over the years, they felt very comfortable opening up and talking to me about their situation, but because there was nothing available at work through the employer, I had to make a decision on my own. What did I want to do? How can I prevent a conflict of interest from taking place by helping this person as an individual as opposed to their manager?
Let's shift it around a little bit because I was also in HR. I am dealing with people in the warehouse, and there's a woman that comes into work and she's shaken up. She is marked up. Everybody's around her consoling trying to find out. She's in a situation. The employer has no resources or benefits or anything to offer this individual.
The more that I'm doing my research and finding, “What type of employee assistance programs and benefits are offered?” I'm seeing a lot for alcoholics, gambling addicts, and porn addicts. I'm seeing a lot of five counseling sessions if you feel like you're depressed or going through a form of trauma. I'm not seeing anything that's for real-time people for domestic violence. Let's switch the hat as I am growing and navigating through these uncharted waters, under all these DV or Domestic Violence umbrellas. I had my own security company. I was a consultant for a corporation's access control, understanding how to read people's movement from badging and cameras, understanding how to put the different layers into play.
In doing all of that, here I am realizing that we are first responders before actual law enforcement shows up when there's an incident at play. When you're dealing with a domestic violence situation where you are being told third-party security, most security is a third party, they're typically not in-house, how are we supposed to respond and react? We do not employ those people. We are managing those people. We do not create policies or procedures that are for the corporation and/or the company that's hiring the folks. There were many gaps that I was seeing that needed to be bridged because there was nothing for domestic violence in real-time. People are trying to come to work and either make a living to escape their situation or come to work to leave, like mentally out of their situation.
In reality, it's never the case because you're constantly stressed out. You're constantly looking over your back. You're trying to figure out what you're going to do, how you're going to do it, when you're going to do it, when is the right time. As on as your offender starts to smell that you are getting ready to go, it gets even harder. Imagine that 1 out of 3, if you have a pool of 500 employees, you have your entry-level folks coming in who are probably not going to say anything because they need their job. They fear retaliation, which by the way, in this law, you cannot retaliate.
You have your manager. What if the manager is somebody who's dealing with the DB situation? They're obviously not managing their employees very well, their productivity is going out the window, and then they're in between the department and who they report to and what are they supposed to do. They're probably not going to want to share the truth either, because as you get up the ladder with your titles, it's more of like a pride thing or you don't want to be embarrassed.
You don't want to alter your reputation or how people respect you and things of that nature. I can keep going until we get all the way to the top. What if you're HR and you're coming into work as the battered man or woman, then what? Are you going to tell your people? Are you going to tap into the resources and benefits that are there? Is that something that's reported at the end of the year to the owners? These are heavy things.
Our hearts go to the victims, but when you get to being a large employer, you're employing a lot of perps. If it's 1 in 3, there are a lot of people being the perpetrator of this stuff. I don't doubt your source or anything like that because we don't know what goes on behind those doors. It's not like the perps are out there bragging about it usually. That would mean that if you employ a number of people, you've got people who are guilty of domestic violence on your payroll.
When Domestic Violence Comes To The Workplace
It's either direction. You can either employ perpetrators or you're employing victims. It's either way. You don't know what you don't know. What you need to do and know now that SB 553 is here, is that you start to learn human behaviors. You start to provide training and put up different posters and communications around the workplace so that people are aware that you do have a policy, you do have a plan, and that there is training on an annual basis.
My recommendation is to conduct drills. There is nothing better than a drill. I will share with you what I like to do because it helps me every single time. That is conduct a penetration test. For somebody like me, I don't get questioned. I get through. When I do get questioned, I still get through. I will challenge any senior leadership and say, “I will walk into the building and leave a note on your desk. You're the only person that knows that I'm going to do this penetration test. Let's see what happens.”
If something does happen, at least I know who I tell them to call so they can confirm my validity of being there. Conducting a drill and seeing how far you can go to show the vulnerabilities and where to tighten things up goes a long way. An active shooter is something that has been increasing over the years as well. A lot of people believe that the most important asset to a company, specifically a larger corporation, is the infrastructure. In reality, your biggest assets are your people. You have no infrastructure if you don't have your people.
Your biggest assets are your people. You have no infrastructure if you don't have your people.
Over 70% of workplace homicide is domestic violence spillover. One thing that I will share is that domestic violence is now being more labeled and called Intimate Partner Violence or IPV. One of the other interesting laws that are accompanying this SB 553 is going to take effect in January 2025. That is where employers can file a restraining order on behalf of the perpetrator and keep the victim anonymous.
I'm super excited. This is what I've been doing, all this research, gathering all the information, understanding retention policies and how the investigations should go, and different measures to put things into place to prevent. I am super excited because I believe that this will be a ripple effect across the nation. I think that every company should have something for victims of domestic violence.
The thing that intersects with the Eye Of Power system and what we're thinking about as far as impacting culture is traditional, we have this line between the workplace and home life. You want to compartmentalize the person as it relates to the transactional element of what they bring to the skills to the job, what they're doing or not doing, performance-based, the KPIs, that mentality and are still those that think that's what work is and should remain then there's more of an emerging mindset that is the more whole human, which is you're here and you've got all the stuff that's going on in your life. There isn't a line between anything because you bring everything with you wherever you go.
We're far more dealing with reality and more effective with people when we can embrace the whole. Having said that, there's a mind your business, there's privacy, and different people that have different sensitivities and sensibilities about these things. All of that murkiness puts pressure and a demand, or it makes it harder for leaders to build cultures of trust. We've got a specific view here as it relates to these are pretty egregious examples where you're getting to a violence level that you're missing in a lot of ways. If you're at the violence level. You're at the very basic level of life there.
If you can't respect people enough to not hit them or hurt them, you're at level one or below. Most leaders are trying to get up 2 and 3 above that level. Having said that, you gave that rt of siren call saying, “This is emergency level. This is rampant at 1 in 3. You're dealing with it whether you like it or not, you just don't know it.” The question I have behind all of that is, what's your guidance for a leader who wants to engage their people in a holistic way rather than a transactional way? What would you say your thoughts are around those kinds of conversations?
Talking to that statute of leadership would be more, those who are well-rounded in understanding what their current culture is. If it is more of a caring type of culture where their people are respected and appreciated, then this is a sensitive topic. Being open, transparent, and very clear on the sensitive topic for what it is sharing how the mandate is coming down the pipeline, and seeking actual engagement on who wants to do what because there's a team that should be in place that responders, communicators, and fully trained.
Some may have experienced themselves and may have a form of being triggered if they are a part of like a simulation or a part of that training. Therefore they would not respect that as a leader and continue talking to the group who is willing. When you get people's buy-in and they feel like they're a part of something, they're committed, they're loyal, and that makes them feel a part of. That's the biggest thing about a culture at any company, is it feels like a community and that people have a part in what they're committed to doing. That would be the approach.
What I'm getting from that is you're underscoring the importance of having the attitude as a leader and the style as a leader. That is one of wanting the best for your people and wanting them to develop, not just what they're doing at their job or the succession plan that they can move into. Not only that but for them to be fully expressed and have a good life.
It's for everybody's safety. Here's the thing. These are the two most important things in life. I'm saying this as a mother, HR person, consultant, and a human being in the world. The two biggest things are health and safety. If you're doing anything to risk, either or, we need to have a conversation because those should be the two priorities whether you're at home, in public, or at work.
Workplace Violence Prevention Planning: Health and safety should be our priority wherever you are. If you're doing anything to risk either, we need to have a conversation.
That's the table stakes. We make sure that we're doing those things correctly so that we can build from there.
If you have a community of people at your workplace, and that's the culture of the workplace, what room is there to be argumentative or challenging, something of that nature? Plus it's a requirement. it's easing in and having that approach where people feel involved and are participating.
It seems to me agape that what we need is a lot of honesty and courage. Those are the two fundamental virtues that we talk a lot about in the show because these are courageous conversations and courageous actions because the easiest thing to do is, “I don't see. I don't hear. I see nothing. I hear nothing. I speak nothing.” I think I'm being safe by doing that, but you're not. I guess that's part of that awareness and part of that training and plan is to get people oriented they have the proper view of what the proper actions are in this because it's not necessarily just active shooting. It could be emergencies or anything out of the ordinary that you have to respond effectively.
This is interesting because maybe I'll find the commercial on YouTube and use that as an example, but what comes to mind is this commercial, I remember seeing in my younger years, and it was a person that was doing lines of cocaine and it said, “Not your problem.” They show the same person as the bus driver for the school bus picking up your kids. What are you doing at home and how is it affecting you at work? How many people are you putting at risk? if you knew then would you be more helpful and provide more resources to help mitigate, not just isolating a person, “You cannot do that,” but helping that one person and everybody else, just to put it into perspective,
Evolution Of Consciousness And Understanding
That's a good perspective. We're all connected and little things can ripple into big things. A mandate such as this and people such as yourself, it's easy for people to maybe demonize that say, “It's overreach. My business is this. It's too much. I can't handle all of this stuff.” What you're talking about here is an evolution of consciousness and understanding beyond that transactional, “Leave me alone,” place to hide you can be the worst self instead of your best self.
Identifying human behavior so you can also catch on and confront it in a positive way before something happens. There are different layers.
That's one thing that you have had personal experience with where there are probably unique patterns, but they're archetypical patterns of behavior where it starts at a level, then it goes to another level and forth and on up to basically murder, murder suicide, or something like that. There are layers and patterns that can be recognized.
There are many different forms. There's financial, verbal, emotional, economic, and technological abuse. There are many different layers it's understanding and being comfortable enough or feeling safe enough to talk about it. All companies that need to put this plan into place need to put out there that level of confidence and comfortableness for people to come up, speak up, and speak out. That's truly where it starts.
For those that might be reading this in California that need the help that we've caught their attention, the antenna, how would you suggest they reach out to you, or how would you coach them to move forward?
You can find me at TinyUrl.com/CASB553. It takes you to a bot, and there is a lot of free information that I personally trained it to respond to. You can get pretty much a pre-assessment based on the questions that it's being asked. If you want to book a call, I am available to talk to you and see how I can help you be compliant by the deadline.
Is there anything else that you want to make sure that people understand that we didn't touch on?
I feel like there's so much because of all the different layers that we covered, but for the most part, if you are in a personal situation where the environment is toxic and work is your place to escape, talk to the people there. You'd be surprised at how many resources somebody there has, even if it's not the company itself. The statistics are 1 out of 3. Somebody knows somebody. Everybody knows somebody. For those of us who have been there and done that, we are more than willing to help, provide the resources, influence, and encourage, all of that. If you are somebody who has to make a decision and feels like you're under pressure with this ticking time clock in the back on being compliant, this is a sure way to help bridge some of these gaps.
It's a very strong responsibility and impact, full responsibility for any small business, any business, but it is time. There are many other resources and benefits out there for other individuals, that are dealing with porn addiction, gambling, and alcohol. Now there are going to be resources available for real-time victims. I want to share that domestic violence increases immensely when gambling is a problem. If there is access to a firearm, the murder, homicide, and suicide increase by 500%. The statistics are out there. Fact-check me. I'm telling you, it's crazy. It's time for these preventative measures to be put into place.
My future daughter-in-law, my son's fiance works for a nonprofit that helps raise awareness and provides resources for domestic violence. They go into schools to try to help kids because if you're a minor, you might feel like you have not too many options and it’s very scary. They help there, but I think they help across the board. She's located in Pittsburgh. She's passionate about that and she feels like she's helping and making a difference times. I know this is a growing field, unfortunate, but fortunate that the resources are growing. Your work is super important. I’m very thankful to you for your giving heart and your willingness to put yourself out there, tell your story, be there for people, and have courageous conversations. Thank you for that work.
Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate having the opportunity to speak on this passionately. Please, I would love to connect with your daughter. I also have a 501(C)3 nonprofit. It's called Confronting Domestic Violence to Bridge Gaps. What I do is help relocate families that have a safe place to go, but not the means to get there because no parent should leave all their belongings behind to go for safety. I am on that same walk, path, and mission. Please connect us.
I'll absolutely do that. That's great. Her name is Taylor. I'll give each other your info, and we'll go take it from there.
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Agape, thank you for being my guest. I'm sorry that there's a profession such as yours, that those services are needed, and that we have to pay attention to these things, but that's the human race, that's our psychology, that's our lot in life. This is what happens at the lowest levels when things are not developed and things are awry.
We have patterns of violence and abuse. It comes down to the base of behaviors that are within the spectrum of the human animal. We spend a lot of time climbing out and trying to aspire to the highest elements. It is important to put the spotlight on the lower elements so that we can get people where they are and understand that people can be in various stages.
It could be developed from one area of life and be dealing with a very basic and low area at a moment's notice. If you're an employer or a leader, you have people who are in dire and stressful circumstances that bring those consequences with them wherever they go, not necessarily, that's the most dramatic thing that could happen in the workplace. Even the distractions, energies, vulnerabilities, and inability to perform at a level or being triggered by certain things, all manner of things that are not ideal, that don't go towards the highest cultures that we're trying to build. We have to pay attention to this stuff. We need people like Agape. Thank you again, Agape. We'll continue the conversation in a brave and honest manner and try to make a little difference in this world so that fewer people end up in those kinds of situations. Thank you for reading and joining our conversation.
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About Agape Garcia
Ms. Garcia has a tenacious attitude towards empowering others. Over the past 35 years she has navigated through domestic violence, privacy, safety, vulnerability, and the mindset to endure personal adverse events in life. Her survival of a double attempted homicide while 8 months pregnant (by the father) and the desperation to survive became the catalyst to the foundation of Be Your Incredible Self while achieving an undisputed outlook of extreme independence. Although it is a natural trauma driven response, Garcia will openly admit, it became her self sabotaging trait like an addiction.
Through years of boots on the ground wisdom, with a God fearing heart and purpose driven life, at her own risk Garcia shares her personal story and recently established a nonprofit to Confront Domestic Violence both in real time and by challenging policies.
Her personal journey of Post Traumatic Growth has led Garcia to dedicating her life in developing transformational programs and various forms of coaching to bring emotional awareness, positive intelligence and clear cut confidence to experience Post Traumatic Growth and take action to live a more satisfying life.
For over 10 years she has volunteered and collaborated with local law writer(s), in support of bills under legislation; specifically, those under public safety and privacy in support of domestic violence.
She provokes thought around real life situations while providing insight from boots on the ground experience.