9.1 Workplace Violence & Handling Difficult People

9.1 Workplace Violence & Handling Difficult People

Quick Answer: California BSIS electives teach guards to handle difficult people through communications, conflict management, verbal diffusion, and negotiating, and to detect workplace-violence warning signs in worker–worker, client–customer, and supervisor–subordinate interactions—then report and protect personal security rather than “tough it out.”

California security officers routinely face angry customers, stressed employees, and tense supervisor–subordinate disputes. BSIS lists Handling Difficult People and Workplace Violence as elective skills courses (up to 4 hours each). These topics appear in practice banks and on-the-job evaluations even when a particular provider packages them under different CE titles. Master both: the first is how you talk and negotiate; the second is how you spot danger before it becomes assault.

Handling Difficult People: Core Skill Set

The BSIS Handling Difficult People outline emphasizes practical interpersonal tools:

These skills align with Appropriate Use of Force de-escalation concepts (self-control, effective communication, scene assessment, force options) but stay focused on non-force resolution. Your goal is voluntary compliance with site rules—not “winning” an argument.

Verbal Diffusion in Practice

Verbal diffusion is intentional communication that reduces emotional intensity:

1. Create space and time — Do not crowd an agitated person. Keep a reactionary gap and an exit path for yourself.
2. Acknowledge without agreeing to unlawful demands — “I hear you’re upset about the refund policy” is different from “You’re right; take whatever you want.”
3. Use short directives — One request at a time. Long lectures raise frustration.
4. Offer choices that are all acceptable — Choices restore a sense of control and often end standoffs.
5. Know when talking is over — Threats of violence, weapons indicators, or refusal paired with advancing toward you require distance, backup, and law-enforcement notification per post orders.

Negotiating on a security post is not bargaining away safety. You may negotiate how compliance happens (which door, which supervisor, how long to wait) but not whether a trespasser may remain after a lawful exclusion, or whether an employee may ignore an evacuation order.

Workplace Violence: Detecting Unusual Behavior

Workplace violence includes physical assault, threats, stalking, intimidation, and related behaviors that create a reasonable fear of harm at work. BSIS frames detection around unusual behavior and warning signs in three relationship patterns:

Warning signs are not a diagnosis of mental illness. They are observable behaviors that increase risk:

• Verbal threats, jokes about shooting, or “you’ll be sorry” statements
• Obsessive focus on a grievance, person, or perceived injustice
• Sudden withdrawal combined with hostility or paranoia about coworkers
• Bringing weapons or “showing” knives/firearms where prohibited
• Extreme reaction to ordinary corrections (discipline, denial of access, policy enforcement)
• Interest in shift patterns, camera blind spots, or how doors lock—without a job-related reason

Anger management awareness helps you distinguish ordinary frustration from dangerous escalation. Anger itself is common; uncontrolled anger with threats, property damage, or targeting a specific person is a security event. Document what you saw and heard, not armchair psychology (“he’s bipolar”). Stick to facts: words used, body language, time, location, and witnesses.

Personal Security While Managing Conflict

Personal security is part of the workplace-violence elective framework for a reason: guards who over-focus on “customer service” sometimes ignore their own exposure.

Practical personal-security habits:

• Positioning — Keep desks, vehicles, or barriers between you and a volatile subject when possible; avoid being cornered in elevators, restrooms, or stockrooms.
• Backup — Radio early. Waiting until a shove occurs is late.
• Hands and objects — Watch for fists, tools, bottles, or bags used as weapons.
• Do not chase into unknown spaces alone if policy and safety counsel against it.
• After an incident — Do not remain alone with the same agitated person “to talk it out” without a plan and witnesses.

Remember: California private security officers have citizen’s arrest authority under Penal Code 837 within legal limits—not peace-officer powers. De-escalation and reporting remain primary; force is reserved for objectively reasonable necessity under training and post policy.

Reporting: The Guard’s Critical Duty

Reporting closes the loop. Employers cannot intervene on risks they never hear about. Report:

• Threats (even if later called a “joke”)
• Pattern harassment between coworkers
• Domestic violence spillover on site (restraining-order subjects appearing at work)
• Damage to property tied to anger or retaliation
• Near-misses (someone lunged, then stopped)

Follow employer reporting processes: incident reports, chain of command, and any workplace-violence or threat-assessment team procedures. Notify law enforcement when post orders or the seriousness of the threat require it. Incomplete or delayed reports create liability for you and your employer and leave potential victims unprotected.

Exam-Style Trap

Do not assume that because a dispute is “only words,” it is not workplace violence. Threats and intimidation are within the scope of workplace-violence awareness. Conversely, do not invent crimes: observe, document, report—and stay inside your legal role.